Scottish D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson has long held an extraordinary fascination for us visual thinkers, including many a 20th century artist. Inspired by Albrecht Durer's famous heads (see below, we even have a Vulcan), he developed a mathematical model as to how environmental forces affect the growth of organisms in his famous "On Growth and Form". Of particular interest is the structural approach that ensures changes in the part affect the entire form. His influence over major figures from many different disciplines from the arts to structuralism during the 20th century was huge. Today, while looking for ways to use a... Continue reading

Little did I know when I began doing a little research prior to posting some images from Annie Besant's and C.W. Leadbeater's "Thought forms" the vast landscape that was about to emerge. By which I mean the incredible reach of these 19th century ideas and their far-reaching influence on art (see "Kandinsky's Though Forms and the Occult Roots of Modern Art, published by a theosophical website), science, and society ever since. But if I were to attempt to give you even a glimpse of this landscape, you would not be hearing from me for about a year, so let's just... Continue reading

Recently a friend of mine discovered mindmapping and decided to try to use it to memorize poetry, an ongoing although until now frustrated ambition. About a week later, we met in a café and she proceeded to recite poetry to me for half an hour -- including Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold (see below). I was truly astounded, not only that she had successfully memorized all this poetry but by the remarkable delivery and the way the central metaphors came through so clearly in the way she spoke the verses. Then she showed me the visual notes she used to... Continue reading

Recently I gave my Kindle to my mother, since I read my Kindle books on the IPad, and while she's quite techno-friendly, the Kindle is not the easiest device to master for the neophyte. I explained the various keys, buttons, switches, plugs and menus, but it was all rather confusing. She took notes. I drew a picture of the device labeling this and that. It was all pretty confusing. Then it hit me. A new application for graphic facilitation! See below. I'm sure with a little practice this could be quite an interesting tool... Continue reading

As someone always interested in mapping in general, more specifically in how to convey mutliple realities in a single image, and in the wake of the new film The Hobbit by Peter Jackson, I've been looking at various attempts to map the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, a book I have been re-reading on a regular basis since age 12. Of course, this is a complex task, since any book by Tolkien reverberates with the echoes of past and future history, and the cast of characters is vast, inter-related, and of course the epitome of diversity with at... Continue reading

I love to browse around in Extremetech.com, somewhat addictive but full of fascinating developments in just about everything thanks to the bleeding edge of technology. Today, I ran across an article about a study of how the brain categorizes and maps everything we see (you can download the actual study on the site). To quote the author of the article: "...neuroscience doctoral student Alexander Huth had five participants watch two hours of movie trailers that contained over 1,700 categories of actions and objects. During that time, their brain activity was recorded using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), measuring blood flow... Continue reading

Back from Geneva where I attended the IAF (International Association of Facilitators) Europe 2012 conference. I made my usual pitch in favor of using graphic facilitation to a group of facilitators who signed up to learn some visual vocabulary and a few useful templates, and even had a chance to harvest the keynote speakers. Great workshops, good food, wonderful landscape, and a lot of interesting people in our very, very multicultural group. The theme was diversity and what this meant for facilitation in terms of methods, approaches, efficacy, and innovation. Congratulations to IAF Geneva folks for the terrific job they... Continue reading

J'ai eu le plaisir et le privilège de récolter trois Forum Ouvert à la Maison du Citoyen à Fontenay-sous-Bois lors du colloque sur les problématiques autour de l'internet solidaire, ou comment oeuvrer pour que le monde numérique ne soit pas un facteur d'exclusion -- ou un système totalitaire, d'après un des participants. La récolte était réalisée avec projection sur écran sur IPad avec Brushes. Le défi de la récolte sur IPad consiste à garder une continuité stylistique à travers plusieurs "planches" virtuel, car on ne peut pas visualiser en temps réel le résultat en entier. Le "truc" ici c'est le... Continue reading

Zane Groshelle works for Prezi, wandering the world spreading the word. He attended the IFVP 2012 Conference in Pittsburgh, where he gave a workshop on how to use Prezi. It's cloud-based software that is incredibly easy to use, flexible and playful with its zoomable canvas. You can include photos, videos, and documents, and the software has a huge range of forms and colors to choose from. It can be used as a structured presentation or a brainstorming tool, and you can even draw in it. More information on Prezi here. Zane created a Prezi that tells you a bit about... Continue reading

One of the most interesting aspects of the IFVP conferences is the opportunity to compare and contrast styles of graphic recording, learning from each other. I thought I would try to give you a taste of this with a series of graphic recordings on the big paper during Mike Rhode's keynote address on sketchnoting. Unlike the previous poste on the same keynote, where I included my own sketchnotes, graphic recording/harvesting is designed to benefit not the graphic recorder but rather the audience, serving as an anchor for memorisation and a stimulus to discussion. Sketchnotes are usually primarily intended for the... Continue reading

More from the IFVP 2012 Conference! We were privileged to hear a keynote address the first day from Mike Rhode, the "inventor" of sketchnoting. His entertaining talk took us through his journey as a sketchnoter and how he continues to promote visual note-taking as a way for people to use what visual skills they already have to capture their experience in an organic and natural way. He currently writing a book on sketchnoting that we are all eagerly awaiting. Here are my own sketchnotes on sketchnoting. In another post I'll show you some examples of several graphic recorders capturing his... Continue reading

In my ongoing effort to provide you with a virtual (and unfortunately partial!) IFVP experience, herewith my sketchnotes for Jeannel King's excellent overview on how to produce a whiteboard animation film. Jeannel is currently the IFVP's extremely dynamic president! Her workshop emphasized key points to remember in each phase. Pre-production: ask the client the right questions, and know what you are willing to do -- take on the producer role or just be the "talent" -- generating storyboards and doing the actual filmed hand animation (RSA-style). Apparently the hardest step is to get the client to come up with a... Continue reading

One of the many stimulating workshops organized at this years IFVP (International Forum of Visual Practitioners) conference was a strategy session for Spark, an organization of people, projects, and organizations that supports the Kids plus Creativity movement in Pittsburgh. The session was focused on how the work of the Activation Lab at the Learning Research & Development Center can be applied to their activities in a sustainable way. To make a long story short, Activation Lab seeks to strenghthen science learning in the United States. The Spark/IFVP world café brought together Spark people and IFVP graphic facilitators to explore how... Continue reading

Off tomorrow for the three day annual IFVP (International Forum of Visual Practitioners) conference in Pittsburgh. This yearly event is a fantastic opportunity to meet fellow visual practitioners in the growing field of visual facilitation, brush up techniques and learn new ones, and generally grow business and professional skills. While I always feel humbled before the immense talent I see all around, I also love how I make a quantum leap in how I do my work from all the stimulation and learning. You'll be getting updates over the next three days. Stay tuned! I'll try to share as much... Continue reading

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First published in 1950, Marion Milner's fascinating exploration of "free" drawing, "On not being able to paint", has much to teach us today. It seems to have stemmed from her attempt to come to grips with dissatisfactions with her painting. She felt her ability to "copy" the outside world lacked power and emotional impact, and began investigating the question through a long series of doodles/free drawings that she kept records of and analyzed over a long period. What's interesting is her analysis of those drawings and how she feels they allow the imagination to emerge on paper as a kind... Continue reading

Eric Heller teaches physics and chemistry at Harvard, but he's also an artist. This fortunate man uses his profound knowledge of what's going on at the atomic level and his talent for graphics to give us a glimpse of that invisible reality, modeling particles, waves, and the mysteries of quantum mechanics. "I really am trying to reach the public and get them interested in science," Heller said. "If you could get someone and draw them in for aesthetic reasons and they ask, 'What is this?', then you got them." (Harvard Gazette) More on visuals and science from Heller here. Continue reading

I've been meaning to post something on doodling for some time now... It's a complex subject, and I have a lot to say, but for today, the results of my on and off thinking on the topic... According to Wikipedia (lots of interesting reference articles by the way), the word itself first appeared in English in the 17th century, meaning "fool" or simpleton (from the German Dudeltopf or Dudeldop, meaning simpleton or noodle). Yankee Doodle! Nowadays, however, doodles usually mean something you draw "absent-mindedly" while doing something else... although Sunni Brown defines it as "to make spontaneous marks to help... Continue reading

Séduite par un visuel intriguant, je me suis acheminée vers l'excellent blog de Ronan Boussicaud intitulé "Le Psyché du Web Social". Evidemment, pour ceux qui s'intéressent à "l'intelligence collective" bien que plutôt en temps réel en présence d'un groupe qui travaille ensemble, l'idée qu'une "psyché" puisse être engendré par des interactions dans une sorte de "second life" où on peut créer à loisir une identité plus ou moins authentique doit être creusée. Donner pour recevoir -- la base de la stratégie du web marketing, d’accord, mais la soumission librement consentie? Là, je deviens méfiante! Voir les travaux de C.A. Kiesler,... Continue reading

When I started learning to be a graphic recorder and facilitator, I was somewhat challenged by lettering. As a visual artist, I hadn't integrated words into my work à la Basquiat and needed inspiration for how to turn a word into an image. So I looked to grafitti art, especially the wall artists. These guys (and gals) are total masters of the spray can. They have a wonderful ability to use their whole bodies to produce the most expressive lines, and incredible imagination in distorting a serif into something suggestive... In graphic recording, getting words to work as images where... Continue reading

J'ai eu le plaisir hier d'assister à une intervention d'Yves Bonnefoy, critique et poète, dans le cadre d'un séminaire organisé par Professeur Zink au Collège de France, "D'autres langues que la mienne". Ca fait un bon moment que je voulais relever le défi de faire un reportage graphique d'un texte philosophique/poétique de haute volée. Là, j'étais servie! Le challenge était de rendre compte d'une organisation d'idées qui était tout sauf linéaire avec des images et métaphores récurrentes autour d'une plaidoirie en faveur de ce grand mystère, la poésie. Ce qu'a dit Yves Bonnefoy est impossible à résumer tellement les différentes... Continue reading

My best wishes to all for a joyous season of renewal, creativity, and connection! Continue reading

Récemment j'ai eu l'honneur et le plaisir de présenter Metacarto, une jeune association qui se dévoue à la mise en scène de l'information dans tous ses états (venez nous rejoindre!), ainsi que la facilitation graphique, aux membres d'une association déjà très connue pour son travail sur la créativité, CréaFrance. C'était très intéressant pour moi d'avoir le feedback de tous ces experts en créativité par rapport à nos expériences ensemble. Nous avons notamment travaillé avec la "carte d'empathie" pour réfléchir sur l'intelligence collective. Voici ce qu'en pense CréaFrance! Merci encore aux organisateurs pour leur invitation et merci aux participants pour leur... Continue reading

I had the pleasure of working with a multi-cultural team of dedicated professionals recently who in an amazingly short period of time worked out their mission and vision statements. I was asked to create an image of the vision, and this is what emerged. As I continue to explore the potentialities of graphic facilitation, I'm more and more impressed not only by the efficacy of visual thinking, but also the power of visual feeling. After all, the centers primarily involved in vision are on the right side of the brain, and so are those that govern our ability to relate... Continue reading

Pour ceux d'entre vous qui ne le connaissent pas encore, la jeune association Metacarto (dont j'ai l'honneur de faire parti) nous propose une présentation des outils actuellement disponibles sur internet pour visualiser et ainsi mieux exploiter l'océan d'information à notre disposition sur le web. Merci à Christophe Tricot, secrétaire général de l'association (visiter son site sur le Knowledge Mapping ici). Encore du fun de la part de Christophe ici. Il a également un grand savoir-faire avec quelques crayons de couleur aussi! Continue reading