15. The Art of Looking Sideways

The Art of looking sideways is a fantastic book by A. Fletcher the delves in to just about everything. I researched the book endeavouring to find some more abstract material. It has a narrative throughout the book, and initially I did read it from the beginning for the first few 100 pages. I then resorted to using the chapter listing to find the relevant topics. I found a lot of interesting images and thought provoking quotes

The first image that I thought was the one above. The accompanying chapter was on abstraction itself, talking about how there must of been a point in history when a man was sitting next to a fire, and within the flickering flames he sees shapes or shadows that look like a face. It would of been events like these that differentiated us from other animals, the ability to see shapes and build connections though abstract thought. And its what all allows you to see the face in the bag above. 

I really liked this image, showing different fonts to represent the scene and where they are placed, not showing any other images other than the table itself..

I like the visual connotations that the words show, conveying their definitions. I think it makes them seamless to their purpose. .

Trying to carve out a general plan for my proposal and how I would like to structure it:

Natural thinking and how we think – more natural to think in imagery vs text > thought process and how we learn thought new connections old data> learning styles visual > could this work? > social/ educational benefit.

Below are quotes and snippets that stood out to me as I found them really inspirational, making me think a lot more about how things are connected or just unseen. 

“Thinking is drawing in your head” P 139

“we don’t think in words. The temptation to equate thinking with language is because words are more palpable than thoughts.”


“Logic is the art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacitates of the human misunderstanding “ - Ambrose Bierce 142


“Imagination forms mental pictures of things not present

Imagination conceives of situations not yet in existence

Imagination conjures up correspondences and analogies” p159


“Unless we can Visualise something then was are unable to think about it” p156

“It has been held that the world is a tangible phenomenon slowly being unravelled by science. An alternative view us that it’s a mirage, a construct of the imagination. A web if ideas, a fabric of our own making” p197

“A picture is a representation or an interpretation. A symbol is the fruit of marriage between the two” p333

“By using one way of saying two things, we can understand the unfamiliar by analogy with the familiar, conveyer the inexpressible by the expressible “ P450 picture play


“ A newly invented metaphor assists through evoking a visual image” p 453 George Orwell

“Art is I… Science is we” Claude Bernard p 12


“Science disembodies, art embodies” John Fowls p 13


On creativity “ a leap across a chasm that is not bridgeable by reason” p 31


“ the Mind thinks with Ideas not information” p 92