The strange triangle that forms the background of many of our pages may seem odd at first sight. Called a Kanizsa triangle, it is an essential part of the Gestalt theory of perception: a holistic view of how the eye works opposed to a purely reductionist analysis of vision.
It
may seem self-evident that a triangle is there. But look again... why do you think you see
a triangle? There are no lines to indicate a triangle, no explicitly enclosed space to
view. Yet the circles marking the corners of the triangle make it readily apparent what we
are to perceive. Only by a holistic vision--seeing the three separate "pac-men"
as parts of a single whole--do we perceive a triangle. The triangle--with its intriguing
unity of parts and wholes--is a profound metaphor for the nature of our intellectual
journey. Like a Gabo sculpture,
it is constantly forcing us to rethink the way we perceive our world. It is at once static
and dynamic, spinning and centered; an idea that breaks out from the page and draws you
into its infinite loops.