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Visual word play
I think in images. I’ve always been able to see things clearly in my mind’s eye. I can visualize lost items around the house - like car keys, or the book my wife was reading last week, or the tool that never found its way back to the tool box.
I have similar experiences with words. Most people consider words and images differently. But, a word is simply a series of letters - visual symbols - arranged to represent a concept. I have always enjoyed playing with words. Not just their cadence or rhymes, but even the typography and the shapes of the letter forms.
I was frustrated today with the “Synonym” function in Word. That’s nothing new. I have a thesaurus on my desk. I have never owned one I would call indispensable. So, I turned to the most dangerous tool in my arsenal. Dangerous only because I can spend hours digressing, exploring, playing, imagining, and eventually finding the perfect word. That magical tool is the Visual Thesaurus.
I’ve watched the evolution of this online tool for years. It’s based on Thinkmap, a software visualization engine. I won’t try to explain it further; you have to play with it to appreciate its power. It may change the way you think – about words, their meaning and relationships.
Dan Pink in A Whole New Mind, cited new experiences, unexpected experiences, unroutine experiences as great sources of creativity. He wasn’t the first to discover this, but his point is accurate. Visual Thesaurus will change how you see words.
Chas Martin
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