Full Circle Associates

Page Space and Screen Time – Kristina Woolsey

Working on visual language.

Live blogging caveats apply (spelling, not catching everything). Pictures will be added later and on Flickr with the tag IFVP2007

· Two years ago David, Tomo and I began a conversation on visual language. A core part of what I’m about

· Yesterday, the World Café session talked about the intersection between visual language and visual practitioners. An art o be aware of.

· Today, talk about technology opportunities, intersection with visual practitioners and visual language.

· Tomorrow Rachel will do technology demonstrates on technique. Make sure we are asking the right questions and framing this so by the time we get to application we are in alignment.

· I’m in the idea business, not the tech anymore, so will frame the issues.

· Firehawk will also do a demo in the last session today.

· This image my daughter drew. The closet image I have to new Mexico, but is Mono Basin. What is wonderful, yesterday just bought a telephoto lens, so started hiking up this hill. I was able to take pictures just up the hill (showing pictures). Gorgeous. What happens is you see this incredible valley. What I thought was better was to have that valley as the image. 30,000 level view. Give you that kind of perspective. I did that on purpose because this is what I mean by technology. Not cool and hip for its own sake but something that allows me to do something. Explain ideas. I could not do this with analog. Camera, computer and cable. Those are the technologies I find interesting and spent many years looking at. I’d like to help this group find the ones that match what you do. When they match with what you do, they may start changing what you do. Having a camera, I am more of a photographer. With computer share images in new ways. Practice changed.

· In the room yesterday we were talking bits and bytes. My glasses are a technology. I can’t do with out them.

· In 2005 we talked about illiteracies. We had a good time. Visual illiteracies. As explained yesterday the excitement about the tools of visualization. How visual literacy becomes more general. A lot of buzz. 20 years ago I thought about these things by myself, 10 years a go a few people, now so much there is so much noise it is hard to think. There is a lot going on in this area.

· I go back to basic principles. What I’m interested in is not the tech but the ideas and how tech allows us to share the ideas. (Lots of pictures on the screen).

· So this is 1979, match imagery. Before graphic calculators – an image about how to understand integration. This set of images and computer programs help us now. This picture did not change the phenomenon but helped us understand it!

· 1976 Geographic Mapping – a picture of a performance hall. I spent many years looking at architectural renderings and how they represent a space. The caricatures were often more informative than the detailed architectural drawings. There is a way where you are talking about abstractions, not pictures. 1978, before the Mac interface, we had the idea of images on the screen. David and Fred, incredible excitement about iterating through the work through images.

· 1974 Seymour Papert – which of these is the better renderings of a cube. Three mages. Which one best represents a cube. Some are good for some, some are good for others. Children will draw a, perceived by adults as naive. But there are many ways in which these picture change when you pay attention to them.

· I joined Apple in 1985 and we developed a tool called Hypercard. It seemed like it came out of nowhere. It was a tool where you could link things, click on pictures and see things connected. Could make your own. Set of characteristics now at the core of what we thought of as the web. Ted Nelson and Doug Englebart had done hyperlinking hears before. Parc Xerox had them. In the research domains and labs. Hypercard allowed you to start connecting things. I was there for 15 years, 5 ran Apple multimedia lab.

· Project in terms of life story – movie about DNA, you should be able to stop at any time and click on an object or person and learn more, capture screen shots. Apparent scientific understanding phenomenon.

· We had B&W small screens. Took a lot of imagination to see the web revolution. Did a projecxt on Grapes of Wrath and learn more about issues from the novel. It anticipated the web in terms of finding ways to gatherin formation. It was built by a librarian and high school teacher, people in the craft.

· This is one I brought today (image) as a way of thinking about technology in your craft. You would click on a part of the image and you would hear that person’s speech. (Image of people at a table with hands up). Each perspective was different. The image started a whole other set of conversation with the audience.

· When Clinton=Gore announced the internet, we did it as a demo with little kids connected with video conf and messaging in 1995 and 1996.

· This thing happened to me. We were building all this connectivity but there were few people involved who understood visuals. We build a course at Stanford, VizAbility. I have a couple copies here, CD. 1995, 2004 http://www.course.com

· These tools are available but people weren’t dying to do it. Didn’t know. Course was built to encourage seeing, drawing, environment and culture (missed a few). We built exercises using the computer systems to get an experience in basic literacy. Who is this for? EVERYONE! Drove marketers crazy. Not for graphic professionals, not for a niche, but for everyone. Critically acclaimed product. Still viable in 2020. Pre computer skills. How do draw, show people drawing. A thing on seeing. Most individuals in our culture in North America – visualization has been put off into the arts and the arts have been put off someplace else. Extream generalization. Using diagrams. Scott Kim has a great video piece on how group conversations happen.

· 1988, these are my kids, me, I got to 2005 and my kids are grown and graduating. I retired in 1998. I don’t do this. 12 step. I do not do this. I had been doing life by …

· Now doing a lot of things. In 2005 I got so angry that these tools existed now, put our life blood into them, and nobody had a clue. We forgot to send the instruction manual. I went back into this business. I do do it now.

· In 2006 I developed the newmediathinking project. After I left you here in 2005, I spent a year of intense, engaged, involved looking at kids and media. I read all these articles and thought “I don’t think so” so I had better find out by myself. Had a wonderful time with these kids.

· The basic pitch I was giving… what is there beyond the book. We are still in the book, looking over the edge. And the issue of enculturation. How these kids doing all this video/computer stuff – they are doing it on their own. There is no systematic methods. These visualization tools, ability to visualize, are not moving into the schools. Schools are still print based, build on reading and writing literacy. This is different. It is not an unnatural problem, but we don’t have a system of enculturation.

· We had paper, speech, conversation. My generation – how we communicated. Really complicated things. Born and learn in 2, 5 and 10 years is remarkable. These are technologies. We now have the opportunities with new technologies. (lots of names on screen). I could have done emails. It could be interesting. Slideshow, blogs, and other things I didn’t list. All these media at our disposal to communicate. But need to understand how they work and when to choose which.

· My son says this is not a big deal. New media is about new choices. Some of us are closer to them. Those in the world, that is the question.

· The main thing I learned working with kids is they are much better speaking for themselves.

· Digital kids – video – kids in digital age, digital natives, kids familiar with schools, process things fast. More visual than just reading. See pictures, imagine more. Learn better with visual. Representing what they know using new technology tools. Expression of how to learn and what they learn. Visual components that go with the writing. Ownership of learning. “You can’t be a technophobe.” Technology as integral, not as an add on. “Follow the child.” Maria Montessori

· Forgot to introduce the school – NKO school in Chicago, charter school associated with Univ of Chicago and a school in Marin County.

· This is happening. These kids are doing it. Two major take aways. I put together a little book with 7 movies talking about the kids. At the end of the project, realized I could say all sorts of things, 300 pages, then made this little report.

· Two major take aways –

o What are the new media competencies- there are a wide range. One is technical capability,

o general media awareness. Understanding what is available and how it works

o Design and composition

o Intentionality and planning

o Judgment and Reflection

· I know everyone in this room is good at all these things. Looking at normal groups (graph). I’m an experimental psychologist and would like to do this research. Youth have high tech cap low on judgment. Adults low on tech, high in judgment (see picture)

· What does it mean to live all these years. You have a prime moment for collaboration with youth. You heard the remarks of the young people and the teachers who allow things to happen. Collaborating. It always pops up if you allow it to happen. This could be a Trojan horse for environments for learning. Optimistic for various ways. Not that kids will take care of themselves, but that we are well situated for doing important work on thinking and learning.

· Second point – there are new languages emerging. New language domains. In spending this year with youth, realized the media most of us are comfortable with, the mainstream media in our culture is page space. Spacilize our ideas. Our charting. Books. The way I’m using this presentation is page space.

· Screen time is the model of the new era. Not terrific. I can carry this guy around (laptop). IPhone is closer model. OK as a phone, it is not so much that it is a phone, but it is mobile processing power to give you the screen whenever you want it. Talking on the phone is just a little detail. Interface designed more like a computer. Design over time. Movies at anytime any place.

· Three others: Sound Time – Cyberspace – a whole different world. The media I’m talking about up till now is old media made more powerful. Cyberspace is a different world in terms of programmability and robotics.

· Realspace – still important. For this group to jump ahead – realize your clients are spread all over the globe. Real thing to deal with.

· 5 language domains. If I were building a school to morrow I’d make sure I had a curriculum around these 5 domains that represent the world they will be swimming in. Some I know about, some I don’t. Sights and sounds in the new age. Wrote an article called “Child’s Play” and found a John Dewey quote. He said, things are changing, the world is moving, reach extending, we have no idea what is going to happen so we need to make sure that children have the skills of leadership, discernment and judgment that help us move along. At a time of rapid change, this is our best bet.

· The transition from page space to screen time is in our face. Bhuto in Pakistan yesterday. Went online, saw the slide show and text. All the articles that were on Pakistan from NYT were all there. Read lst 10 articles. It is not newspaper online, it is a new business. The way we are using, not just reading on the screen. Transfer then int changes

· Make movie reports and pod casts instead of essays

· Receive text and IM instead of letter – they carry their exchanges with them, not doing email anymore.

· Video games instead of cross word puzzles

· Anytime, anywhere connectivity. A connective parcel that help you keep your connections.

· Free internet in New Mexico airport, not in San Francisco.

· New media thinking report – in it I did a whole set of pages, reverse story boards. Did it spontaneously. Noticed I created this record and I now ask myself, maybe this is better than that movie. You can make books with sound buttons in them. You put the sound that goes with the picture. Did that with the movie captures. http://www.ekko.com

· It is going to be fun.

· What is interesting now is to have the ability to specialize temporal pieces. Intriguting, the page space encourage analysis and reflection. What has happened to me this year, I have for whatever reason started making these picture books. You must. I started in Santa Fe, did my first picture book about Santa Fe in May. Made this book with pictures that describe my trip. I wrote some text. IPhoto, shutterfly. You organize your pictures in the book, push a button and then 5 days later you get a book. This is a revolution in print publishing. No sound yet, but pretty soon.

· My husband laughs at me. I have developed a series of books. I have a book on China. My daughter’s high school art portfolio. I was in China going down the Yangtze making books. Hit publish in Shanghai and by the time I got home the book was waiting for me. I can do pictures, and can add text.

· Many kinds of books. Trip journals. My neighbor makes jewelry but never sells. After I did my portfolio, we had dinner, we said let’s make one for her jewelry. Now she has a portfolio of all her works, taking to Neiman Marcus. Got my first photo credit. This thing starts to generate. When kids come to visit, I take pictures and then I send them a book. “Thanks for a nice day.” Generative capability. You may get addicted. Other books, shared events, learning environments for young writers. They all went home with a book. Priceless for kids from immigrant families. Now parents want to buy books to send home to family. Kids excited.

· To maintain the oral culture, adding the audio very powerful. If you lose it, buy another one.

· Taking my old movies, and turning them into story boards.

· I started making one last night for visual facilitation. A new medium. A new technology that allow us …

· (distracted for a moment)

· Relevancy to IFVP

o IFVP as clients for new emerging visual technologies to enhance practice

o A group that spatializes temporal processes. A very interesting misx of time and space (and visuals)

o IFVP as examples of advanced visual communicators

o IFVP as co creators of a theory of effective visual communication practice

o IFVP as collaborators inc creating visual literacy curriculum

· Representational density – picture in a room with a speech, graphic recording on screen, audio, digital camera, paper recording on the side, recording personal note taking and reflecting.

· Moving from time domain into the space domain. Timeline of images. How do you bring a field trip back. You don’t want to re-experience. Invented this thing called a video smear. One pixel of a photo. If you click on it, you see that video.

· General purpose tools

o ILife

o Instant messaging and video conf

o Table pc

o Web 2.0

o More

· Unique competencies

o Active listening

o Big space – story yesterday how one of your kids, put up big paper and they did their math on it. Big space allows you to do things

o Animating idea development – a teacher is someone who animates the students. They are part of everything, they are not on the side, they are in the middle of it. You are taking and animating the conversation. Some of you have this magical skill of taking a group process and putting it out there where people can get at it.

· This is my new model of you guys. You share this core of generosity, good will and public service. Then some of you are graphical recorders. Some of you aren’t at all. You have all these other things in you (Image). Some of you walk around as teachers, artists, marketing consultants. ) “Listen for the collective.” Pattern finders. Release creativity. Those things ask for a fluency that much of the tech doesn’t has. You need to help people develop it.

· Applause