According to Christian Leborg, in Visual Grammar, “True movement only takes place in the real world” (48). Several types of sequences, however, can create an illusion of activity. Repetition of objects with one or more shared characteristics causes the viewer to perceive activity in a static composition. Repeating characteristics include form, size, color, direction, and texture. Two or more of these objects with identical spacing have even frequency repetition. One or more varying frequencies can create rhythm, and rhythm creates the illusion of activity.
Repeating by mirroring gives an illusion of activity either when the light waves of the mirrored object reflect off a surface at the same angle, or when the object appears mirrored against a volume (a surface with several different angles). The mirrored image will be symmetrical to the original image in the former type of composition and distorted in the latter.
The undistorted image of the landscape with its flying birds mirrored against a surface without volume adds activity and excitement to this composition. (http://ravador.deviantart.com/art/God-s-Painting-295901314)
In this photograph, the flight (movement) of the horses is emphasized by their reflections, which are mirrored images. Because the water has some volume, the mirrored images have some distortion.
(http://karrerphotography.com/cards-and-posters)
When a repeated object seems to move along either a circular or an elliptical path, it has rotation, and the point of rotation is the center of the object. An object can also rotate around its own axis. Although the object is, in reality, static, rotation gives the impression of movement.
In addition, objects have an appearance of movement when the designer either enlarges or down scales one or more repeated forms relative to another. Scaling that has a constant width-to-height ratio is proportionate.
Repetition of form and color in Alexander Calder’s Copeaux de Spirales lead the eye along an upward path. The down-sized scaling of the pattern toward the top of the composition gives the impression of continuing movement even beyond the canvas.
(http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/11487968_calder-alexander-litho-copeaux-de-spirales)
In this type of sequencing, and in any of the other types described above, for an object to give the illusion of constant movement, it must seem to travel along an imagined line, or path, in a direction that is defined by the starting point and the end point of the presumed movement. Movement along this path is superordinate movement. Objects can further rotate, move back and forth, or swing as they travel along a path. This movement is subordinate movement.
One more sequence that gives the illusion of activity is displacement. In this type of sequence, a repeated form has an angle that is different from the angle of the original. The change in angle causes the viewer to perceive movement in a specific direction.
The displacement of the treetops in this painting gives the viewer the perception of trees blowing in a storm. The increase in angle from left to right gives direction to the wind.
(http://fineartamerica.com/featured/rainbow-palms-in-florida-lil-taylor.html)
Why is it so important that designs have movement and rhythm? According to the Getty Museum of Art’s educational website, movement is the path the viewer’s eye takes through a work of art to one or more focal points. In addition, the repetition of one or more elements of design creates rhythm, “a feeling of organized movement.” Thus, an artist uses movement both to create unity and to direct the viewer’s eye to the artist’s message. (http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/buildinglessons/principles_design.pdf).
BlogSpot designinthevisualarts states, “Repetition works with pattern to create a sense of activity.” The site further notes that repetition of elements of design in artwork contributes to rhythm. Regular repetition repeats a visual element at regular intervals, which gives a feeling of relaxation. Syncopated repetition, on the other hand, has complex patterns of repetition. Repeating an element several times, then repeating that pattern differently creates a more dynamic and less relaxed feeling. In addition, irregular repetitions can create discordant rhythms, which can create disharmony, and thus strengthen a discordant message. (http://designinthevisualarts.blogspot.com/p/repetition-and-rhythm.html)
Movement can manipulate time. One Cornell University art instruction site defines movement as “the process of relocation of objects in space over time.” Further, according to the Cornell site, it “is the design element that operates in the fourth dimension – time.” With the invention of motion pictures, artists, for the first time, had a non-static way to represent real world time and action. In static two or three- dimensional design, artists used diagonal paths and positioning to show movement through time. After the advent of motion pictures early in the twentieth century, some artists began to mimic stop action photography to give the perception of movement over time.
In Nude Descending a Staircase, Marcel Duchamp placed the nudes overlapping on a downward diagonal path in an attempt “to capture the entire sequence of action through ‘stop-action’ imagery.” (http://char.txa.cornell.edu/)
Visually Speaking 