The Gestalt Program Pics and Musings

GESTALTUNG, Fifteen educational activities in 12 sessions
by Mariano Akerman

Mariano Akerman, "Gestalt Program as Meaningful Configuration: Its Shape and Content," lecture
The Swiss Residence, Islamabad, 20 October 2011

Theory of Perceptual Organization: Holistic Approach

Swiss Ambassador Bubb, Art Historian Mariano Akerman, and German Ambassador Michael Koch
Launching of the Gestalt Educational Program
Swiss Residence, Islamabad, 20.10.2011
Photo courtesy of Shabbir Hussain

A great success, primarily thanks to Mariano Akerman's competent, well structured presentation. The holistic approach and the humorous elements contribute to a fascinating learning experience. —Christoph Bubb, Ambassador of Switzerland to Pakistan

Gestalt: Theory and Design in the Age of New Objectivity. A Series of Educational Lectures, Training Sessions and Workshops

The Gestalt series of lectures by Mariano Akerman is an opportunity to bring a most significant European movement closer to the Pakistani audience. Indeed, experimentation and new objectivity are concepts which have shape European modern cultural identity. As always, Mariano Akerman's formidable knowledge of the art and his exceptional ability to captivate a wide audience will be beneficial for students and teachers alike, bringing the Gestalt closer to their own reality. The message conveyed by Klee, Le Corbusier, Arp, and other prominent artists and architects who have animated the Gestalt and Bauhaus is very much actual in today’s world. —Nicolas Plattner, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Switzerland, Islamabad

"The Theory of Perceptual Organization: The Whole and the Parts"
Lecture and Students' Collage Display
Islamabad College for Girls, 25 October 2011
Guests from Islamabad Model College for Girls, F-7/4

Mariano Akerman's lectures were well delivered and produced great interest in our students of Fine Arts and were also a basis to broadening the horizons of students of History, Applied Psychology, Sociology and English Literature. These extension talks are of immense value for students and faculty alike. —Rabyia Qadir

The Parts and the Whole

"Gestalt in the Collage Children and Parents Workshop"
Islamabad, 26 October 2011

I think it was probably the best lecture I have heard. Right on form; Mariano Akerman was able to blend your knowledge of the subject with great visual presentation, humour to those of us who perhaps didn't know anything about Gestalt. His ability to combine, connect, integrate and transfer knowledge to the audience goes way beyond what many professors could do.
Mariano Akerman's potpourri of efficent, effective, instructional approaches centered around the theme of GESTALT; not a theme usually used when working with 8-9 year old students, showed once again that Mr. Akerman is able to engage all students, promote interest and variety in learning and teaching, and provide immediate and continuous informal assessment during his workshops. Mariano's ability to use humour and his keen understanding of child development help to provide workshops and seminars that promote ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT for all children. During this particular workshop, Mariano invited parents to actively participate with their child and with other children once again showing that this type of strategy is what that helps learners of all ages to learn better when they are actively engaged in learnning. —Joan Pohl

"Reality is problematic and not unquestionable."
Ortega y Gasset

The lectures were marvelous. They were informative and interesting. They captivated the students. Gestalt theory appears to them as multifarious and they understand it can be implemented on many different spheres. —Mamoona Kahn

"What we know changes what we see.
What we see changes what we know."
Jean Piaget

"Collage et intégration : la théorie de la Gestalt et les arts visuels modernes"
Alliance Française d'Islamabad, 27 October 2011

The Gestalt Programme lecture delivered by Mr. Mariano Akerman had a very positive impact on the students. The students were enthusiastic about and awed by the lecture. It captivated them and kept their attention from start till the end. Time seemed to pass very quickly. Mr. Akerman has the charm and the quality to mesmerize the audience. His lecture was not a monologue: it had beauty of involving actively everybody. —Farah Shaikh

"Si ce sont les plumes qui font le plumage, ce n'est pas la colle qui fait le collage." —Max Ernst

"Gestalt Theory and Bauhaus Design"
COMSATS University, 28 October 2011

Einfühlung | Empathy

Additional Resources
Islamabad, German Embassy in Islamabad, Integrated Whole, Experimentation and Identity, Gestalt: Theory and Design in the New Objectivity Age, 25.10.2011
Islamabad, Deutsche Auslandsvertretungen in Pakistan, Integriertes Ganzes, Experimentieren und Identität, Gestalt: Theorie und Gestaltung im Zeitalter der neuen Sachlichkeit, 28.10.2011
Sara Mahmood, Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures, 28.9.2011
Ishrat Hyatt, Gestalt Programme Launching Event, International The News, 22 October 2011, City News, p. 19 (S).
"The Ambassador of Switzerland ... held Reception Lecture of the Gestalt Educational Program held by Architect Mariano Akerman," Diplomatic Focus, Pakistan, Vol. II, Issue 8-9, October-November 2011, p. 70, photographs by Shabbir Hussain.
Almas Haider Naqvi, "Other is the Same Side of the Picture," Dataline Islamabad, 22 October 2011, p. 4
Maqbool Malik, "Tradition meets Modernisation," The Nation, Pakistan, 24 October 2011
SwissPak Association
Gauhar Zahid Malik, Embassies of Switzerland and Germany present 'Gestalt': Theory and Design in the Age of New Objectivity, Fifteen Educational Lectures by Mariano Akerman, Architect and Art Historian, Pakistan Observer, Pakistan, 3 November 2011, Twin Cities, p. 9.
Ilona Yusuf, Enhancing Perception: The Gestalt Lectures and Collage Competition, Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 16-19, ill.
Sara Mahmood, Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures, Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 20-24, ill.

Gestalt Programme Launching Event

by Ishrat Hyatt
International The News, October 22, 2011, City News, p. 19

ISLAMABAD. The Ambassador of Switzerland and Mrs Regula Bubb hosted a function to mark the opening lecture of the Gestalt Educational Programme, which is being supported by the embassies of Switzerland and Germany.
The series of fifteen educational lectures, training sessions and workshops by Argentinean artist, Mariano Akerman architect and historian, Summa cum Laude, has been conceived especially for Pakistani audiences. Focusing on the Swiss-German contribution in the fields of theory and design, it aims at sharing experience and reconsidering the interplay between tradition and modernisation, over 2,500 students have been invited to participate from educational institutions around Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Ambassadors Bubb and Koch, with the lecturer

After invitees representing the arts had arrived and were seated, the host welcomed them and said he and his wife were delighted to host the event which would showcase the artistic achievements of the great artists from his country as well as neighbouring Germany. He thanked the ambassador of Germany, Dr Michael Koch, for his help and collaboration and said it was so readily forthcoming that he was tempted to ask for it more often. With a few words about the Gestalt programme, he thanked the speaker for his contribution and asked him to take the floor.
Lectures by Mariano Akerman are never boring and you can listen to him for more than the usual length of time even though the subject may not be your cup of tea. His talks combine facts and figures with touches of humour and just a little spice in the form of taking a dig at people and places—in the nicest manner—thrown in for good measure, much to the delight of the audience. The students who attend his series in connection with the Gestalt programme will enjoy his style, probably compare it with that of others and generally come away with a greater understanding of the subject under discussion since he encourages his listeners' participation.
Mariano began by saying he had been in Pakistan for five years because he had a passion for art and because he has been inspired by the interest Pakistanis display in his artistic activities. "When people in Argentina ask when I am coming home, I reply home is here," he said. "Because I feel at home among my friends."

Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures

With a slide show to emphasise the points he made, Mariano began by speaking of European art of the 20th century, in particular the period of the Weimar Republic from 1918-1933; its ups and downs especially the economic downside between 1921-23 and the golden years from 1924-29 when there was a switch towards change of accepted norms and practises. It was interesting to hear and see the comparisons he made and how he explained what modern art was all about [...].
In a statement, Mariano says that the Gestalt theory and Bauhaus design are two of the important themes to be explored in this cycle of fifteen lectures, training sessions and workshops. Figure and ground, chance and intention, form and function, the rational and the irrational, repression and expression are discussed [in the Program], which reconsiders the modern idea of form and function integrated in a single, effective whole.
Yet, significantly, close observation may reveal that modernity is not only based on functionality and common sense, as it may present surprises too. Besides, is ornament a crime? Tradition has often associated it with identity. Can abstraction and mass-produced fabrications provide it? And what is the common raison d'être supporting the work of German-Swiss creators so diverse as Walter Gropius, Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Le Corbusier, Meret Oppenheim, Mies van der Rohe, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, and Max Ernst?
A possible answer is that it was precisely around the 1920s that such inventive creators provided us with the best of Modern Art. Following their example and being characterised by its experimental nature and full-of-prizes collage contest, The Gestalt Programme aims to open a window towards the achievements of geographically and historically distant cultures, stimulating local productivity and inventiveness, without rejecting ancestral traditions.

Ishrat Hyatt, "Gestalt Educational Programme: Swiss Envoy hosts Opening Function," International The News, 22.10.2011, City News, p. 19

The Gestalt Program Brochure pdf

Slideshare : Mariano Akerman

GESTALT, from the German term gestellt, "put together." According to the Theory of Perceptual Organization, our mind is holistic.

Additional Resources
Islamabad, German Embassy in Islamabad, Integrated Whole, Experimentation and Identity, Gestalt: Theory and Design in the New Objectivity Age, 25.10.2011
Islamabad, Deutsche Auslandsvertretungen in Pakistan, Integriertes Ganzes, Experimentieren und Identität, Gestalt: Theorie und Gestaltung im Zeitalter der neuen Sachlichkeit, 28.10.2011
The Gestalt Program
Programa Educativo Gestalt
Sara Mahmood, Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures, 28.9.2011
"The Ambassador of Switzerland ... held Reception Lecture of the Gestalt Educational Program held by Architect Mariano Akerman," Diplomatic Focus, Pakistan, Vol. II, Issue 8-9, October-November 2011, p. 70, photographs by Shabbir Hussain.
Almas Haider Naqvi, "Other is the Same Side of the Picture," Dataline Islamabad, 22 October 2011, p. 4
Almas Haider Naqvi, "Other is the Same Side of the Picture," Dataline Islamabad, 22 October 2011, p. 4
Maqbool Malik, "Tradition meets Modernisation," The Nation, Pakistan, 24 October 2011: "Mariano Akerman, an Argentinean national by origin, made an exciting presentation to put across his ideas and knowledge about [the] Gestalt Programme, and [...] amused the audience with humour to make the otherwise boring stuff lighter to digest including art lovers and students."

Gauhar Zahid Malik, Embassies of Switzerland and Germany present 'Gestalt': Theory and Design in the Age of New Objectivity, Fifteen Educational Lectures by Mariano Akerman, Architect and Art Historian, Pakistan Observer, Twin Cities, 3 November 2011, p. 9
Ilona Yusuf, Enhancing Perception: The Gestalt Lectures and Collage Competition, Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 16-19, ill.
Sara Mahmood, Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures, Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 20-24, ill.

Swiss Envoy hosts Opening Function

Swiss Ambassador Michael Bubb, Art Historian Mariano Akerman, and German Ambassador Koch
Launching of the Gestalt Educational Program
Swiss Residence, Islamabad, 20.10.2011
Photograph courtesy of Shabbir Hussain