An analysis of the structure in material pictures of collage work

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the process by which collage material was chosen, by looking at the structure in material pictures in terms of their transitive chain and connection strength, and investigate the relationship between planning prosess and artwork characteristics. For the purpose, successive choices of material pictures were analyzed, and graph theory applied. Forty mentally retarded and normal subjects participated in an experiment of collage work production. The transitive chain of collage material pictures for normal subjects was long (deep) and showed story development, and connections among material pictures were strong. On the other hand, the chain for retarded subjects was short (shallow), without story development, and the connections weak. These results showed a correspondence between planning process and artwork characteristics. It was suggested that the method used in this study was effective in analyzing the structure of collage as well as Hakoniwa work.