Atectonic
DEFINITION
Atectonic is a term mostly used in sculpture and architecture that refers to any shape or form that protrudes into open space, or contains within it a sense of "open form". Coined by Heinrich Wölfflin in 1915, atectonic is paired opposingly with tectonic. Wölfflin also used the terms free/strict, irregular/regular but settled on "open / closed" as this offers a more general and ambiguous meaning, which is more suitable for this style. <br><br>In an open form, which is characteristic of 17th-century painting, the style "everywhere points out beyond itself and purposely looks limitless", in contrast to the self-contained entity of a closed form, in which everything is "pointing everywhere back to itself" ~ Wölfflin 1950<br><br>With the advent of film, moving pitcures were seen as essentially open in form whereas the individual stills were considered closed in form.<br><br>