Scott McCloud's Unifying Quadrants
I got pretty excited when I saw the following quadrants in Scott McCloud's TED talk on Understanding Comics because it ties together a lot of big ideas.
The first slide of quadrants showed four categories of comics, which he cleverly labelled classicist, animist, formalist, and iconoclast:
![FliA9](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tj86hiSuzCtCmacbJVETkFAEYICs4p9EGLHZGxsiPN31ldvqxUp0iUwsssKq2Qn7rs80bk685kcapFzEcien3k3E_ZXtDZKXqo8K6iRUw0d_eAER3KYBsf5B-7Dvsv_ZhMMg=s0-d)
But then he pointed out how they correspond to Jung's four subdivisions of human thought: sensation, intuition, thinking, and feeling.
![SNAG-0003](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u5hS0Trj49N7OM7djkwhdOfy0BPdQ-hXlaOsOspBMW4E_sxt4HbqS664YAT7dDwp8n_PwKATI2O0YETa7hkEy7QD1wb102nlbQLZwr1hNWX36YfjqQ2iprVVeh4xwhXEqvLw=s0-d)
The upper and lower halves correspond to tradition vs. revolution:
![SNAG-0000](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sKI_gfrQSzfz764v50nCtHYLim2q9m7szD9ThpFckC-T2eZqQkSXyYwZ2ZswQno6jeBaDiAdBRojGCNd5fm8bajzdLDeFyhBe2Ps2UtG3gXC89N6jNVt4QUc2jUwb4X7xt=s0-d)
The left and right halves to art vs. life:
![a](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u0dryhiwt68OB25_DPUagYOSiBoXEZVf8MuFGjwjIM0CLkB0gScVCgHAIbKBzhapWFux0ZTUQcj78YdUq315ldrGJXm8-1eSu_ADpT2JSj04YUTMcA8JFOiI658h76kcVj=s0-d)
One diagonal contrasts form and content:
![SNAG-0001](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sG47nYJDSF5IfVc0VMc8-jCdWYv_NP2GCZD6qrRzdQg1pbUPGYBge2tFCvVhR6OpNgp_-MuhUISLXrBRZ_oA7FNGXgfBkKt4BTgE1zjNJ-ZOXIkbBXmh5EL5S-GpNdaYND_Q=s0-d)
The other contrasts beauty and truth:
![SNAG-0002](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sv5Ff3RRo6SFw9kLfpvEo1CLUn1OXu-SETBcsV4LmP1j-mnfeWKGaUytUeBFMQLvkWsUi6U3g-1ZWMcWpum_GrKMD1Gh8ly54UOxjJ3xD7S7l1eXiPGRb_C-Y5LiwqEOE3nQ=s0-d)
Playing around with this, it's interesting to deduce that:
Putting it all together:
![FliB7](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vBkod5MMpyQ7sEXJ4biSDVRjwsmk-mkyU3XHsNqqaZWqavJb9gGdfCu_Nshtk6AR2D2pjJXw6VjUR9ERDIYTtC7u2Q0v_gHZFAp36LNjPJPvtHw7enoqT1xE3WZrjFgoiKPQ=s0-d)
Music:
![FliAA](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_umdJmof2jaLwbFzZ6U1h549_0-pfvpdzkU2Mp9p_iKkUOsi1a779b-f7BIW9MAXrw5GpqKgYXnMcMe7kXt9gr0Dtz0MR861qwHBmmRkwbGK9j9hkx8RHdb59UsB14PZ-_R0A=s0-d)
Movies:
![FliAB](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vRtOwkuffK_oFOaiLYNcaDEMKSUuzLeMlHLSAFfjmHyCjPKXei0iWDWeyg3UliePqS_rZwLc9G7JEmY5ulWbD3O_765v3W0iVnxPJVsUq2HUc5F2aqQAhN6Ui_lBz12w1Z=s0-d)
Fine Art:
The first slide of quadrants showed four categories of comics, which he cleverly labelled classicist, animist, formalist, and iconoclast:
But then he pointed out how they correspond to Jung's four subdivisions of human thought: sensation, intuition, thinking, and feeling.
The upper and lower halves correspond to tradition vs. revolution:
The left and right halves to art vs. life:
One diagonal contrasts form and content:
The other contrasts beauty and truth:
Playing around with this, it's interesting to deduce that:
- Tradition = Sensation + Intuition
- Revolution = Thinking + Feeling
- Art = Sensation + Thinking
- Life = Intuition + Feeling
- Revolution + Art = Form
- Tradition + Life = Content
- Art + Tradition = Beauty
- Life + Revolution = Truth
Putting it all together:
Music:
Movies:
Fine Art: