Mike:
The issue of visualizing text is an interesting one
because it crosses cognitive domains and ways of
organizing information (serial vs. configural,
phonetically encoded elements vs. figurally encoded
ones, cultured use of language elements involving
words and rules vs. spatial organization and
perceptual gestalts,etc.)
As a teacher of design who has often observed students
respond visually to a verbal project statement, I am
not too confident that you will be able to generalize
on what is going on in the minds of your students
until they try to explain what they did - and that is
often tainted by what they think you want to hear. It
would be more useful to measure their success by
getting outside, uninformed observers to match the
images generated with whatever text the observer
thinks it represents. It is far tougher, to penetrate
the student's thinking processes and you aren't likely
to do so without an unstructured verbal accounting of
what they are thinking as they do it, followed up
afterwards by seeking more detailed explanations of
the interesting parts. There is a large literature on
the conduct of such verbal protocols. Just google it!
When you consider analogies be sure to read Lakoff and
Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By" and Lakoff's "Women,
Fire and Dangerous Things" which should offer clues to
a more structured approach. i.e.. Don't approach
analogy without a deep understanding of metaphor.
I have tried to articulate a language like basis for
visualizing information in a short piece on product
semantics that I will send if I can find a digital
copy and update it to my present theory. It suggests
five dimensions of reference that designers often
employ to communicate: directly apprehended features
(handles, colors, words, etc); associations
(analogies, etc); contextual determinants
(appropriateness, style, typography, etc); functions,
and acquired values. You might use such a model to
document the interpretive emphasis placed by your
illustration students as they visually interpret the
text. Klaus Krippendorff is an excellent source for an
understanding of the issues involved.
With regard to other papers, I am updating my
bibliography, and marking which are electronically
available. I'll send it when I finally get it done.
I hope that you do not mind this posting of my
response to the list. Your questions are, I hope, of
general interest.
Best regards
Chuck
Dr. Charles Burnette
234 South Third Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: +215 629 1387
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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