Robert Krulwich has done it again with an introduction to Kurt Vonnegut’s diagrams for storytelling. The comparative imagery (Abstruse Goose) he uses in conjunction with the video is quite an informative description of perception according to personality or trade. Or maybe it’s just human nature?
We all remember laying on a hillside,watching the clouds go by with a friend and challenging them to visualize: “Hey, I see that bear, and he’s being chased by a car full of clowns! Oh no, the car has gone off the road, and the rabbits are laughing because they’re stuck!” Yes, I probably had a bigger imagination than most as a child. I’m sure it had to do with the storyteller in me keeping me amused. I was a pretty tough audience. And it’s progressed ever so steadily higher as I’ve gotten older, as my training has influenced/expanded my perception of the world surrounding me.
I like to put patterns into everything that I create, because they speak to me in a silent language that’s familiar to me. I can tweak at an image or words relentlessly until they fit my inner tempo. If my inner rhythm is satisfied, then I can move to the next design element. Color, texture, words, images, space…they all have a rhythm pattern that is different for each observer. Advertising teaches the importance of visualization as tied to the happy gene, but humanity drives towards simple satisfaction through comfortable patterns. It’s not about the emotions which can be fleeting. We’re looking for continuity in familiar patterns. 1+1=2. Simple.
