visual note taking

Today we had a lecture where we were asked to take notes visually rather than linguistically. At first it was really challenging and I found to an extent I was focusing more on broad points being made rather than “30 second sound bites” which was an interesting revelation about the way that language can form our own ideas rather than express them. By translating the ideas into a visual form, I was forced to think more deeply about their true meaning. Often it is easy to spout jargon that sounds intelligent but is just intellectual bulls*&t. We kid ourselves of our higher learning whilst others may laugh at our pomposity!

I also found that initially I was having a hard time coming up with ways of representing ideas, but over the course of the lecture I developed a symbology for myself. At first it seemed that I had just replaced one language system for another, but on deeper reflection, my symbol system is more personal, even though it is still influenced heavily by socially understood symbols (see fig. 1) which can be widely understood, and this comes perhaps, from a clearer internal understanding, rather than an externally enforced method of communication. This is probably heavily linked to the way some children invent their own language systems between themselves, although I never did.

Will post notes taken when I get them back.