“… imagination isn’t what we think, it’s how we think.
Now, I’d like to go to the originators of this, and that would be David Hume and Immanuel Kant, who noted that the imagination is situated between our perceptions and our understanding .
As Kant wrote in 1780, that we do not see the world the way it is; we see the world according to our instruments.”
[ “Imagination: It’s Not What You Think. It’s How You Think | Charles Faulkner | TEDxIIT”, ]
Imagination is not what you think. It’s how you think. Cognitive research reveals that images, metaphors and stories are the basis of our mental operating system: the origin of our intuitions and our irrationality. Counterintuitively, more accurate insights do not come from increasing information or reason, but educating our imagination.
https://youtu.be/QMu5XLux_GA
That’s a great talk about something essential. Highly recommended.
Of course I’d say that, because it resonates with the work I’ve done, what I’ve learned, what I’ve tried to write about and develop:
the more important reasons that technical drawings are produced, their purpose for authors and viewers alike, what they’re for in general.
The functions of drawing:
- Expression of visual close study (V.C.S.), sustained articulate expression of the act of narrowed attentive focus within the wider expansive environment of a project’s mental, physical, and digital models.
- Physical Evaluation, of the model at V.C.S. locations, primarily a check against omission of physical items, and development of good fit among the physical items present.
- Affirmation of (2. Physical Evaluation)
- Building The Engine of Thought, an interplay between two poles: wide and narrow, environment and focused close study. In the interplay, thought happens and understanding grows. With either of the two poles absent or diminished, the engine shuts down, or evaporates along with thinking itself and understanding, which fails to develop.
- The courtesy of drawing attention to things not to be missed, in the model.
This is the function of technical drawing. 5 functions, that is, all at once.
This can be done in models, but some equipment is needed. See V2.0 and V3.0 here:
Purpose at V1.0.
The exhibit designers at GeoCenter on the island of Mön, Denmark, know about this, that a model with some V.C.S. equipment built-in will stimulate perception, fire the imagination, develop understanding.
Two kinds of exhibits I saw this weekend:
That the TGN V3.0 software development proposal, specification, and forthcoming open source code for implementation and use in AEC modeling software applications correspond closely with the way these exhibits are designed to operate and be interacted with, is no surprise.
The interaction features in the GeoCenter exhibits and in the TGN OPEN CODE proposal closely match each other for good reason, because both come from the same place. They’re both straight forward and obvious designs, obviously natural.
They’re designed from paying attention to the way people perceive things visually, the way we want to engage, look at things, the way we try to figure things out.
What’s going on here is just common, ordinary, and tacit.
But you have to notice it. Pay attention a little bit.
And then carry it through.
Execute it in software.
Again with care.
2D, 3D, animations, renders, schedules, databases, specs, indd: they are all just info, or different views of it.
Even in a 3d context, what does the user do first? He rotates the view and adjusts the views clipping planes to give him a 2d Plan or Section View, that allows him to work most effectively.
Is not all about consumption at the end of the process.
Need to integrate both all the way.
A lot of it has to do with our cognitive needs. We read and write musical notes, not playing by ear.
We use symbols and proxies. Our mental maps are often more 2d or 1d flow charts or lists. Designs are also narratives.
– Dominic Seah, Architect
OPEN VCS, a lens for looking at models 