Figure and ground is a concept drawn from Gestalt psychology by media theorist Marshall McLuhan in the early 1970s. This concept underpins the meaning of his famous phrase, "The medium is the message". The concept was an approach to what was called "perceptual organization." He began to use the terms figure and ground as a way "to describe the parts of a situation" and "to help explain his ideas about media and human communication." The concept was later employed to explain how a communications technology, the medium or figure, necessarily operates through its context, or ground. To McLuhan, "‘figure’ refers to something that jumps out at us, something that grabs our attention, [whereas] ‘ground’ refers to something that supports or contextualizes a situation and is usually an area of unattention." When we first experience a new image or sensation, there are certain aspects of the object that grab our attention and engage us and certain aspects that we unintentionally ignore. We should not focus on just the "figure" or the "ground" though, as McLuhan believed that both were equally as important to understanding the full meaning of the situation. "This distinction between that which is perceived and that which is blocked out in order to focus perception is central for McLuhan."
Figure and ground is a concept drawn from Gestalt psychology by media theorist Marshall McLuhan in the early 1970s. This concept underpins the meaning of his famous phrase, "The medium is the message". The concept was an approach to what was called "perceptual organization." He began to use the terms figure dfwdsgswsfdgfdssfd sd f gf fs gf fgdgfo McLuhan, "‘figure’ refers to something that jumps out at us, something that grabs our attention, [whereas] ‘ground’ refers to something that supports or contextualizes a situation and is usually an area of unattention." When we first experience a new image or sensation, there are certain aspects of the object that grab our attention and engage us and certain aspects that we unintentionally ignore. We should not focus on just the "figure" or the "ground" though, as McLuhan believed that both were equally as important to understanding the full meaning of the situation. "This distinction between that which is perceived and that which is blocked out in order to focus perception is central for McLuhan."
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and ground as a way "to describe the parts of a situation" and "to help explain his ideas about media and human communication." The concept was later employed to explain how a communications technology, the medium or figure, necessarily operates through its context, or ground.
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