Visual Thinkery stories and cartoons

Category: #creativity

  • Curious Intelligence

    Curious Intelligence

    Prepping for a Visual Thinking workshop at DCU in Dublin last month (part of a conference entitled “Education after the Algorithm”) had me pondering my current interactions with Generative AI.

    I recognise that magical feeling of speaking a sentence into the void and being presented with an instant revelation – a conjuring trick. But if Visual Thinkery is about anything, it’s about listening to more than just the words, and following a series of small experiments – some conscious, some unconscious until finally the creation seems formed enough to be abandoned and released to the wild, before have meaning gathered and attached by others…

    Curiosity is the seam of gold in the creative journey. And it’s with that very same curiosity that I’m experimenting with AI and wondering what it is – behind the magic trick.

  • Permission Slip

    Permission Slip

    I was giving a public talk at a Life Sciences museum in Göttingen, Germany earlier this year. Over a hundred people turned up to hear about my journey with Visual Thinkery – A picture says a thousand words. People were encouraged to bring pen and paper and we had plenty on hand to give out just in case they had forgotten.

    In any audience I’ve had, some are comfortable with picking up a pen and having a go at drawing something. But most people are not. Maybe, like me, they decided “I can’t draw” at the age of 12 or 13, something to do with school or peers or siblings. Whatever the reason, that barrier remains exactly where we put it.

    Until one day we decide to something about it. So I include this little exercise in every talk or workshop I give these days. I take people through the process of drawing a permission slip featuring a little self portrait cartoon.

    A professor and his partner came up to me after the talk at the Museum.

    “When you got out the paper and pens, he told me he wasn’t going to do any drawing.”
    “But he decided to give it a go and now he really wants to show you his drawings…”

    So when it comes to drawing, embrace the child within and give yourself permission to create something. It’s liberating!

  • Insight, in sight, incite!

    Insight, in sight, incite!

    I was reminded this week whilst running a Visual Storytelling workshop with a group of Social Entrepreneurs in Lewisham, the power of insight. We all stand in a different place and see the world through our lens of previous experiences. What you see is all there is. It’s impossible to reach conclusions based on things you’re not aware of. And so we need to be able to listen to each other and learn from one another.

    And so the ability to communicate one’s insight is pretty important – in plain sight.

    h/t to Frans Masereel who’s woodcut graphic novels are a thing to behold.

  • Achilles Heel to Superpower

    Achilles Heel to Superpower

    It’s been a long time coming to this realisation.

    The thing I considered my achilles heel growing up, the enemy that was always in view, the affliction that held me down, I now realise as having given me my superpower. I’m even grateful for it.

    It only took me 20 years to realise it though…

  • Graphic Recording – it’s magic!

    Graphic Recording – it’s magic!

    A quick guide to graphic recording, and the fact that it’s not actually magic, which you can read about in this Visual Thinkery blog post.

  • Ama-Zine Prompts

    Ama-Zine Prompts

    Amy Burvall and myself thoroughly enjoyed delivering a hands-on Zine-making workshop at OER19 in Galway earlier this month. It was so good to be back in the motherland. But the trouble with a workshop of this nature is that most people are a little uncomfortable when faced with a blank piece of paper. So, in our Zine-storming session pre-workshop, Amy listed out some prompts to help folks jump right in… (p.s. if you’re an educator, check out Amy’s Intention book!).

  • OER19 revisited…

    OER19 revisited…

    I’m already looking forward to OER19, and I’m delighted that it will take place in the motherland.

    Aye.

    Of course, I couldn’t resist this little remix of the flyer when I first saw it. This is a product of Mathers third principle of Visual Thinkery – Curiosity must not come back empty-handed…

  • Sparks of Openness

    Sparks of Openness

    Working in the open – it often feels counter-intuitive. What if someone criticises my half-baked idea? What if they make it stronger? What if someone dislikes the thing I’ve created? What if they really like it? What if they pinch the idea? What if they’re able to use the idea, or add theirs to it? 

    Inspiration comes from others. Be an other.

    From a conversation about Digital Literacies with We Are Open colleagues Grainne Hamilton and Doug Belshaw.

  • Raspberry Pi – protector of the shed…

    Raspberry Pi – protector of the shed…

    SOMEONE left the heater on in my shed.

    You can read all about it here in the most recent dollop of thinkery to your inbox.

  • Curiosity

    Curiosity

    What if I just tweak it a little? Change the colours slightly, or make it into a repeating pattern? Or a character? If it could speak, what would it say? Curiosity is creativity’s playful little cousin (Tinker?) – always getting up to mischief…

    I came across this quote on curiosity doing some work for Ada College, the UK’s National College for Digital Skills (I’m a big fan). I was invited to come along to the first day with the first cohort and create thinkery from conversations had with staff and students, who were, and are, brilliant.

  • Eye

    Eye

    It’s a two way deal.

    Once you’ve seen something, you can’t unsee it.

    Equally, the interpretation of what you see is a product of things you’ve seen and experiences you’ve had so far.

    Eye. Even the english word is a palindrome; it’s a two way deal.

     

  • Self Portrait

    Self Portrait

    If self expression affords you a sideways glimpse at your own self, then a self portrait allows you to briefly hold its gaze.

    Deface your face. Go on; I give you full permission…

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