Gestalt as Unseen Wholeness
While not a term commonly thrown around, gestalt holds significant relevance within competence, to engage design sensibility and optimize performance. Understanding gestalt may be helpful in exploring why it's crucial and meaningful in your daily life.
Originating from the German word "gestalt," meaning form or shape, psychologists in 1920 used this term to describe something greater or different than the sum of its parts. Gestalt embodies the unexplainable, unified elements creating a whole in the physical, psychological, or symbolic sense.
As Charlotte Bunch noted, feminism is a gestalt—a worldview greater than a mere list of issues. Artists and designers trigger "gestalt sightings," presenting incomplete forms like "conn_ct_d," inviting your mind to fill in the blanks.
In daily life, gestalt principles operate as your senses naturally fill in blanks. Often this phenomenon can make you aware of your behaviors. Whether it's the missing smell in your favorite bakery or the burnt-out bulb in the office, your mind continually works to complete the whole, illustrating the unseen but impactful wholeness in your surroundings.