by Eileen Clegg and Bonnie DeVarco
"Words and language, whether written or spoken, do not seem to play any part in my thought processes. The psychological entities that serve as building blocks for my thought are certain signs or images, more or less clear, that I can reproduce at will." Albert Einstein
The Intersection of Nature, Geometry, and Communication
Shape of Thought mural, Eileen Clegg &
DeVarco 2009/2010
Across cultures and throughout time, certain shapes have carried the power to inspire, intimidate, delight and inform. A spiral, a pentagram, a labyrinth may invoke momentary longing, fear, or curiosity, although we may not know why. Over the millennia, many mathematicians, artists and scientists studied the secrets of timeless symbols—shapes that seem to resonate with Nature and the human mind. But only in modern times, with the explosion of new tools and technologies, has science enabled us to experience the profound truth:
Certain
shapes and symbols draw our attention because they mirror the building blocks
of our bodies, the arrangement of distant galaxies, and the complex proportions
of Nature’s mechanisms, including the very nature of time itself. Appearing all around us—from our
grandmother’s quilts to Islamic tilings to maps of scientific data—these
resonant shapes represent a universal language. The ancient patterns that humans have drawn in the sand,
carved into stone, painted on the skin, woven into textiles and written on
countless media from papyrus to paperless cyberspace, tell us a story about who we are and how we make sense of the universe around us.
Powerful
images are not simply representations of physical objects or specific ideas;
they are containers of deep truths and ancient wisdom that are felt on an
emotional level as well as understood intellectually. Some symbols and archetypes contain shared meaning around
the world and across the generations. Today, as our world becomes more
connected and flooded with information, pictures have become critical to
sense-making. One theory is that the new global language will be one of images,
not words.
As
pictures, sketches, and animations become increasingly present on the Web, in
schools and organizations, some people today are scrambling to figure out new
taxonomies where symbols represent specific things. Some are even trying to
develop standards for communicating with images–complete with grammar and rules
for a new visual language. Yet in
the rush to translate words into images, we can lose the subtle potency of
visual communication by becoming too “literal.”
Rather
than narrowing the definition of symbols, we can open our minds to wisdom that
defies words. In the ancient
language of the visual, shapes themselves contain knowledge: about time, the universe, human
cognition and deep communication.
Instead of just using them, we can learn from them.
The Shape of Thought Approach
Now
that humanity has reached a crisis phase—drowning in information, at odds with
the Earth, and challenged to collaborate across cultures to solve
global-problems—we’ve reached the limits of traditional language as a species
trying to gain the wisdom we need to shift our paradigm. The language of shape (also called “visual
language”) is an alternative. It
connects history with a new future.
The “Shape of Thought” an approach to visual language that focuses on the patterns and meanings that link ancient artifacts, emergent technologies, Nature’s geometry, and human cognition. It is an alternative method of communication that most of us experience every day without full awareness. It is a re-discovery of a language that our ancestors used more consciously than we do today. The decorations on ancient pottery were not random; often, they conveyed our ancestors’ understanding of the world around them. Visual language is a compressed way of understanding 6000 years of history, as well as the patterns in Nature we’re discovering through today’s sophisticated instrumentation.
Using
the Shape of Thought approach, we honor images, particularly those that appear
repeatedly through history, as vehicles for communicating more than words can
tell us. We explore their historical meaning that may convey wisdom about
Nature and humanity that we have forgotten, or do not yet know. We use a new lens for data: looking for
patterns and shapes that are emerging as we visualize today’s massive
databases. We think of shape as more than an illustration of ideas, but as an
integral part of the story. We begin to see how history and the leading edge
meet in universal images that transform as humanity transforms.
Visuals are the Language of Intuition
“Ocular imagination” means the “eye of the imagination,” the term was used by 17th century physician Robert Fludd who thought that an inner eye projected images on to a mental screen.
Even
without understanding the anthropological and scientific reasons for why shapes
work, most of us “feel” their meaning.
That is why we often can communicate across languages and disciplines
with sketches and gestures. It may be as simple as someone pointing the
direction to get somewhere, or as subtle as someone sketching a spiral to
explain the unfolding of a new idea. Images often are more than compressed
communication; they convey a sense of emotion and meaning. Some of these are what the great
psychologist Carl J. Jung described “archetypes”—symbols that seem to be
inherited rather than acquired by humans.
Most
of us are vaguely aware that meaningful shapes have their origin in Nature, on
the micro and macro scale. Spiral things; fingerprints and galaxies; spherical
things: molecules and planets; helical things: climbing plants and proteins. A
spiral, a pyramid, a sphere, an “X”, a triskelion,[i] a five-pointed star, a square convey
concepts in subtle ways. People sense the meaning of certain shapes. Often the meaning is shared across cultures, generations,
and professions.
Shapes
resonate on a subliminal level. They convey emotions, capture the “gestalt” of
a concept, and provide a sense of context. They do their job, even if their original meanings have been
lost in time. The people who first
drew spirals, trees, and stars lived in the same world we do—but perhaps saw it
differently because they were more consciously attuned to the cycles of Nature.
Some of the images that are now common symbols emerged as a result of the
original scientists mapping the world around them. Because we also experience
Nature— even unconsciously—these images resonate with us.
Often our bodies intuitively know more than our brains understand about the meaning of images. The language of shape is “spoken” with spatial and kinetic intelligence, and is “read” visually. As an experiment, ask different people to explain specific concepts with their hands and bodies – “flow,” “excitement,” “the whole idea,” “defeated.” You will likely find similarities: an undulating motion for flow, arms open with energetic movement for excitement, hands drawing a wide circle or big square in the air for the whole idea, shoulders slumped and body closed for defeated.
Professionals who participated in Eileen’s 2007 visual communication course demonstrate how the body expresses happiness and triumph.
Now the group demonstrates the physical expression of “defeated.”
Even if our use of these visual cues is intuitive and our response to them unconscious, we are communicating with the language of shape every day. At a time when information and communication is flowing and changing rapidly, those who understand it consciously will have an advantage.
An Intentional Visual Culture
Most of our computers have turned into electronic scrapbooks full of photo, videos, sketches and mind-maps. Everyone with a mobile device today has the capability to create and consume a vast array of images on the go. The emergent visual culture is one of online videos, animations, games, immersive virtual worlds, “augmented” reality environments, global information systems. It’s not unusual on a given day to swap photos and videos, have your avatar walking around in cyberspace, and navigate the real world with a mirror of your movement on you handheld GPS system. Often the visualizations are for entertainment or used as illustrations for ideas – such as decorative images inside 3D worlds, sketches alongside text in a report, animations that tell a story. But out of the visual riot in today’s media, a more intentional use of visual language is emerging.
Students are learning to show their ideas in clusters, executives are literally writing on the walls in corporate board rooms, biologists and physicists visit 3D online worlds or immersive domes like University of California’s Allosphere to see and share models of the universe, young readers are creating a new market for graphic novels. From data analysts to website designers to global team leaders, many people are looking for ways to use images more effectively.
Many information designers and scientists are studying artifacts dating back thousands of years, back to a time when images were not used randomly but were understood as the language of Nature. In the visual culture of our ancestors—when people lived closer to the Earth—imagery carried deep meaning. The circles and spirals they carved into stone were not just decoration; they were a form of communication about their best understanding of how the world worked.
Today, as the world of visual communication is rapidly evolving, we have a unique opportunity to consciously witness a shift in our cultural norms and collective perspective. For example, not too long ago, we saw information with a linear and static organization, in books or on grids. Now information is hyperlinked, three dimensional, and depicted in a variety of shapes. With geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning satellites (GPS), we can now see information “in place”—tied to specific locations, enabling us to see new relationships and the movements of communities through time and space.
How
will these perceptual shifts change humanity? If we are returning to a time when information is depicted
in relationship to our planet, will we become more attuned to Nature? As modern scientists are weaving data
into visualizations that help us picture the nature of time and space, are we
hearkening back to ancient astronomers whose observations were woven into
fabric? What can we learn from the perspective of our ancestors who saw their
daily life in relation to the cycles of Nature?
The
Shape of Thought approach helps us to answer that question. We begin with several premises:
- That humans
share a universal language of shape
- The language
of shape resonates with the mind
- Shape
encodes critical information about the universe
Following
is a brief discussion of each of these premises:
Humans Share this Universal Language
Image to honor computer visionary Doug Engelbart’s idea of “Collective IQ”—showing how certain images make sense globally - by Eileen Clegg
No
matter where we travel, usually we can make simple gestures to enable at least
some communication. People of
different ages, ethnic groups, and geographies often share a similar, if
general, sense of how concepts are shaped. This is why so many global organizations are using “visual
language” (artful depiction of
information using a strategic combination of images + few words). The most impactful images are those
that are very simple, similar to gestures we make with our hands: Like talking
with your hands and leaving a mark. As our world gets smaller and we are
challenged to collaborate across cultures to solve urgent global problems,
visual language helps create context for conversations, learning and
collaboration. We might not convey details in this kind of communication, but
we can share the gestalt or “big picture” of meaning. To the ancient Chinese
saying “a picture is worth a thousand words,” we would add “across cultures and
throughout time.”
The Language of Shape Resonates with the Mind
Cognitively,
certain images connect with the unconscious mind in a way that communicates
context as well as content.
Unbeknownst to most of us, certain powerful shapes are containers of
ancient knowledge and accurate reflectors of the how Nature works. As such, visual language can create a
cognitive frame that enables us to “wrap our heads” around complex topics.
While
data scientists struggle with how to make massive amounts of data
available to decision-makers who need information to make good decision,
individuals from all ages and walks of life are struggling with how to sort
through the massive amount of data and communication that come into our lives
every day. Increasingly, those in
the middle—the technology interface designers—are looking at shape and pattern
to guide them in organizing information.
Shape Encodes Critical Information about Nature and the Universe
The Astrolabe was an ancient astronomical computer.
There
is a reason why NASA scientists still use the astronomical records that were
kept by the Babylonians more than 2000 years ago even as they collect new data
with sophisticated new technologies.
Throughout human history, brilliant thinkers have contemplated the
universe and recorded its cycles using the tools they had available at the
time. Their observations were
often built one upon the other. Often, important information and artifacts that
were lost for centuries, and once uncovered, became useful in refining our
science or allowing new discoveries to be made. Many times, scientists and
engineers have made breakthroughs after studying historical artifacts—often outside
their own discipline—by identifying patterns the original creator might not
have even recognized as significant. Learning the “read” the language of shape
is a way of understanding information in a new way. Understanding the story behind shapes may lead to a new
understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Words Capture Ideas; Images Free Them
Words in context: The application “Wordle” www.wordle.com enables us to see the gist of a chunk of text. In this case, we put in the words of this chapter into the online Wordle application and saw which words came up most frequently. Today’s visual language is often a strategic combination of words and images. (As a visual aside, this wordle does look like a footprint).
For most of the 20th century, “art” and “communication” were separated in the Western world. Art was for entertainment or decoration, and communication occurred via words, spoken or written. Cave paintings were considered “primitive,” ancient textiles were “folk art” and picture books were for children. That began to change toward the end of the 20th century with the advent of the World Wide Web, the fast cycling of information , a new “many-to-many” form of communication, and the emphasis on innovation.
As author Daniel Pink said, the 21st century ushered in “conceptual age.”[i] With the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, finding information is no longer a challenge. Understanding, communicating, collaborating with information is the challenge. Age-old visual tools began appearing—butcher paper on the walls of meeting rooms, napkin sketches during business lunches—then taking new form on the Web with interactive graphics and immersive worlds.
The strategic combination of words + images can capture the sweet spot: A few words to convey information, contained in an image that conveys context. Words have literal, clear meaning. Images have figurative amorphous meaning. Historically, images and ideas worked together to convey concepts. Then words and images became disconnected. With the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, humanity shifted to text-based written communications and much of the wisdom encoded in graphics for 12,000 years was lost. Today the ancient images and diagrams are being revived, restored and reproduced in high resolution on the Web. Many of these images are now being seen and circulated beyond the museums and archives, the experts and scholars to the general public for the first time.
We
are at a crossroads in how we use images today. Will the world culture revive the ancient language of shape?
Or largely persist in the unconscious use of visual language? What will we
choose as individuals and as a global collective? Will images be entertaining? Illuminating?
Inspiring? Or containers of wisdom new and old? There are four levels in which images are
being used today.
(1) The Random Use of Images. Finding sketches and pictures and clip art that seem like decorative or interesting additions to text. Lots of eye candy and visual stimulation to accompany the plethora of text we see every day.
(2) Art to Invoke Meaning and Emotion. Inviting artists who “speak the language of intuition” with their hands and bodies to migrate their “felt” understanding of the shape of thought into the technological world. Bringing calming and beautiful online spaces for information—live and online—with aesthetics as the driver so that information is conveyed with subliminal context.
(3) The Shape of Thought Approach: Invoking and responding to imagery with deep intention: Understanding the origin of shapes and symbols and invoking them thoughtfully, choosing appropriate containers for a concept. Bring anthropologists, scientists and artists together for a “shape of thought” approach to organizing information.
(4) Developing the Shape of Thought. Uncovering and discovering new patterns in data and integrating this new knowledge into the next iteration of visualization. At this highest level of imagery, we are learning from the patterns that emerge naturally from information. How does a list, a spreadsheet, a data set arrange itself visually? How does that align with other patterns, from different disciplines and different times? How does that data allow us to iterate our visualizations to a new level? The shape of thought serves us mostly deeply when the patterns providing information we could not see before visualizing it.
Prove it with "The Shape Test"
We
see concepts in images, and to the extent those concepts are shared, we
experience communication at a deeper level. As an experiment, try the following Shape Test, linking the
number of the shape with the letter of the definition. Then try it out on someone else at home
or in the office. Then talk about
why you made the decisions you did.
If
you compare your answers with others, you likely found a number of similarities
and some differences. Rarely is
there a universal precise translation from word to image; yet we tend to
associate words with concepts in ways that are mutually understood in
surprising ways.
A 21st Century Renaissance
We know that we share meaning from shape. We know that today’s proliferation of data requires us to understand visuals more deeply. We know that we must sift, analyze, condense and compress. But we stop right there. Can we take the leap?
At a time when so much of the world is “connected,” visual language could be a key to transforming the way we view one another and our planet. It crosses borders, professions, and age groups—and connects us with Nature and our ancestors.
The
great Renaissances of history occurred at times of convergence, at the
intersection of cultures, traditions, disciplines, arts and sciences. Deep
shifts occurred that enabled breakthroughs in technology, science, and
humanity’s understanding of itself.
During
the most well known Renaissance—in the 14th to the 16th
centuries—artists and scientists returned to and drew upon the wisdom of the
brilliant thinkers before them, the ancient Greek philosophers whose knowledge
was in turn, influenced by earlier teachers from Egypt, India, Persia and
Babylonia. An earlier Renaissance occurred in the 9th to 11th
centuries as translators in the Arab world looked back to Greek classical works
and added new commentaries. Then these texts traveled to through Spain, the
crossroads between Europe and the Arab world to help initiate the birth of our
Universities. These cycles of “rebirth” always included a great return to
periods in history, and the study of visual artifacts that encoded knowledge.
With the world’s knowledge at our fingertips and all of the world’s population in our extended networks—we have all the ingredients for another Renaissance that could bring our cutting-edge technologies together with ancient wisdom about how humans are connected to Nature and to one another. As with the great Renaissance periods of the past, exploring the history of imagery can reveal deep insights about humanity and the world—insights found at the intersection of Nature, geometry and human communication.
[i] Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind. New York: Riverhead Books. 2005.
[i] [i]
See discussion of the triskelion in Chapter 2.
