Wednesday, August 8, 2012

It's not doodling, it's EYE-STORMING

We've already coined the terms "brain" and "body" storming as techniques to quickly capture and communicate concepts and ideas we generate through cognition or through physical motion, respectively. What about sketching, or doodling? Some complex thoughts require visual exploration if we want to really understand them and share our understanding. Doodling is like noodling with a pencil. But it just does not sound right. It does not sound like what it is you do when you think. Yes, you juggle concepts, move constructs around in your head and so on, but it's obviously much more than that. Above all, it sounds more frivolous than it really is. So too with doodling. The process of moving a pencil (stylus, finger, etc) across a surface without-really-knowing-what-one-is-doing ( to borrow a phrase from Birger Sevaldson in a paper on visualization, 2011) is just as valuable and productive as mulling over a passage in a text book. So I propose we refer to this technique as EYE-STORMING. I'm not sure if the term is already out there, after a little googling, it does not seem be in anyone's lexicon. (yes, I get it, googling, noodling, doodling) But I don't like the name "google" either.