Please see our new blog www.writingonthewalls.com

LOOKING BEYOND THE TRENDS--Joel Orr of Cyon Research identified that fascination with new trends + ennui with old ones = shallow thinking. For example, the term "globalization" has been on the lips of most business and thought leaders for a few years. Been there, done that. But in reality we have only begun to fathom the impacts and implications. At Cyon's annual "Conference on the Future of Engineering Software" (for which we created this mural), the focus was on deeper thinking, stronger networks, and better data for getting the big picture of the sea change we're experiencing.

Do visuals impact the brain differently than text? Yes of course, but how? Bonnie DeVarco and I are exploring that in our book and Bonnie just passed along this link about a conference last Spring where artists and scientists came together to exchange information: Visuals

Communications consultant Natalie Shell has an excellent perspective on risk-taking. How many of us could produce a "failure resume/CV"? A new aspiration!
Natalie'sBlog

What if an elementary school teacher could have instant access to all the online resoures from the best science museums, tailored precisely to the state education standards -- and to interest level of her students? That question led Dr. Ted Kahn to create the San Francisco Bay Area School-Museum Collaboratory. All the great resources from the 9 Bay Area science museums have been linked to the specific standards so teachers can click and get an experiment, a drawing, a story to go with what they are teaching. Programming genius Jack Park created the back end structure (inspired by the ideas of Doug Engelbart/Ted Nelson- Ted asked me to create simple graphics for the pages. Teachers tell us the simple drawings helps the navigation and material feel more accessible. Here's a link to the 5th grade site. ScienceCollaboratory

IS THERE A "SHAPE" TO THOUGHT? That is one of the questions Bonnie DeVarco and I raise in our book CodeX: Unlocking the Power of Visual Language, and we find the answer yes in the interwoven stories of certain pieces of literature, music, art, symbols, and patterns that resonate with Nature, across generations and geographies. Why do certain experiences just feel "right" to so many people? Bill Daul sent me a link to a video clip that speaks volumes about the shape of thought in several natural languages--body, music, physics, dance-- Chris Bliss juggling to a song from Abbey Road.
THIS IS A MUST SEE (Click on link to "finale)

GOOGLE DOODLES. The Time magazine piece about Google (2/4/06) shows a lot of writing on the walls, another piece of evidence for emergent visual storytelling as a tool for innovation. Interesting to note: These doodle on these links clearly are the work of the participants, not a professional artist. At Visual Insight we encourage everyone to write on the walls, letting go of worry about perfection. Bringing in a professional visual journalist is a good idea when (1) you want an objective outside listener to pick up the themes (2) you want to capture the final product for a visual book or report. (See link to the Th!nk Electric car event at Google where the above mural was created Th!nk at Google But in any meeting anyone can spark the brainstorming process with random images and words. They have a way of coming together in surprising ways new ideas. (Thanks to colleage Christine Walker for bringing this to our attention)

Here is an animation of one of my murals. The idea: have a mural unfold images that inspire and relax the brain concurrent with podcasts: Eileen's animated mural