19.091 visual imagination

                Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 91.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: Adrian Miles <adrian.miles_at_rmit.edu.au> (17)
         Subject: Re: 19.088 visual imagination

   [2] From: Gerda Elata-Alster <gerda_at_bgumail.bgu.ac.il> (61)
         Subject: Re: 19.088 visual imagination

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 08:35:31 +0100
         From: Adrian Miles <adrian.miles_at_rmit.edu.au>
         Subject: Re: 19.088 visual imagination

around the 9/6/05 "Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty
mentioned about 19.088 visual imagination that:
>Partially, I'm sure,
>this is the result of learning computers without a GUI, but also I'm
>aware of the limitations of thinking visually.

except things like the Mac GUI are, more or less, based on a linguistic
model: "I do this". In these gui's you first nominate something ("I do")
and then you can perform an action upon it ("this"). This is one reason
they're easy to use, because this models basic linguistic competence ("me
run"), and this takes precedence over visual competence which is generally
much more spatially aware than most gui's.

-- 
cheers
Adrian Miles
____________
hypertext.RMIT
http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vlog
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 08:36:04 +0100
         From: Gerda Elata-Alster <gerda_at_bgumail.bgu.ac.il>
         Subject: Re: 19.088 visual imagination
imagine a child, with almost nil visual imagination - the relief of
reaching the age for reading books without distractive illustrations -
distractive, because it could not refrain from trying to decypher them -
mostly in vain - imagine an adult needing to touch  an icon on the toolbar
for a description and who needs to 'translate' pictures - including movie
ones - into language (I AM  able to enjoy color and composition, though)  -
that's me, watching in horror the world getting more and more pictorial.
Gerda Elata-Alster
----- Original Message ----- From: "Humanist Discussion Group (by way of
Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>)"
<willard_at_LISTS.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU>
To: <humanist_at_Princeton.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 9:04 AM
 >                Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 88.
 >       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
 >                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
 >                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
 >                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu
 >
 >   [1]   From:    Eric Rochester <erochest_at_gmail.com>                  (9)
 >         Subject: Re: 19.083 visual imagination
 >
 >   [2]   From:    njovanov_at_ffzg.hr                                    (11)
 >         Subject: Re: visual imagination
 >
 >
 >--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
 >         Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 07:58:50 +0100
 >         From: Eric Rochester <erochest_at_gmail.com>
 >         Subject: Re: 19.083 visual imagination
 >
 >Like Steve, I'm very visually oriented. But I'm often skeptical of
 >attempts to make things more "graphical" in computer interfaces
 >(particularly tools like visual programming). Partially, I'm sure,
 >this is the result of learning computers without a GUI, but also I'm
 >aware of the limitations of thinking visually. Although certain kinds
 >of information are best expressed graphically, and certain kinds of
 >computer interaction are best mediated by GUIs, for flexibility and
 >power, words (or a command line) cannot be beaten.
 >
 >Eric Rochester
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
 >         Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 08:00:15 +0100
 >         From: njovanov_at_ffzg.hr
 >         Subject: Re: visual imagination
 >
 >Recently I become aware how text- or verbal-oriented the internet is; I
 >tried to identify an 15th century bookseller with a book for the emblem.
 >Seems like a trivial task, but it isn't --- if you're just an user, not a
 >specialist bibliographer / art historian.  The same goes for music ---
 >ever tried locating a song when you don't know the title, or the artist,
 >or the composer (internet helps a little when the lyrics are there, *if*
 >the lyrics are in English --- but what about remembering just a musical
 >phrase?)  Of course the vocabulary to describe colours and lines and
 >motifs and tones exists --- but it seems not to be easily searchable
 >(universal enough?) in the world of computing.
 >Neven