by Mike Coleman | Jan 16, 2015 | Coleman
What is doodling? It has various definitions, but the best one I think is simply this : drawing any kinds of marks in any kind of way, that just feels good, might have no purpose, and might be entirely unrecognizable to someone else! It’s like (nearly) mindless daydreaming or humming or tapping your fingers on a table. But in these activities and doodling, often times, patterns, themes, and repeated symbols form and reappear. And, of course, you can do it with pencil and paper, or with a stylus and tactile drawing sheets. Might doodling be connected to creativity? I have no problem believing that doodling is connected in some way to creativity, to freeing the mind, to opening up brain pathways to better graphical communication and thinking. It feels that way for me, and I am comfortable promoting it that way as a selling point for tactile graphics fluency and tactile graphics tools. But, unfortunately, there is very little scholarly work to show that doodling or sketching is connected to creativity, and no rigorous research that I could find. There is a lot of anecdotal supporting evidence, especially among famous people identified as being creative. (Almost everywhere, doodling is referred to as a visual activity – we need to change that!) This is the only thing I could find, and it is an essay: Schott, G. D. (2011 September) Doodling and the default network of the brain. The Lancet, 378 (9797), 1133-1134. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673611614967 Quote from the article: “The authors found that doodles were produced during states of idleness, boredom, leisure, meditation, and “affective tension”—indecision, concentration, expectation, and impatience. But...
by Mike Rosen | Jan 13, 2015 | Event
What a perfect time and place to be writing this blog. 5:00 AM on January first. So quiet. The loudest sound is the clock ticking in the kitchen. Here in the living room, the Christmas tree is still looking robust and proud of itself. The strings of lights are unplugged but each of the fifty or so ornaments shines with its own unique significance. Oddly, these treasures include five old Thanksgiving turkey wishbones somehow saved in the box of Christmas decorations. Perfect! It’s a tree of metaphor – celebration, gratitude, memory, pride and continuation. It helps me arrange my inTACT reflections from 2014. There’s so much to celebrate. A stranger returning to our space after a year’s absence would be struck by one big change (not just one hundred square feet of new office space. ). Products! A year ago, most conversations with consumers felt like this. Them: “When?” Us: “Soon”. Now the shelves are loaded to capacity with labeled boxes of parts and materials and an inventory of inTACT Sketchpads and Erasers and packages of drawing sheets ready to ship. These past s many months the conversations have felt more like this: Customer: “We’d like to order”. Us: “How many?” Customer: “two of each”. Us: “We’ll ship Tuesday”. So much to be grateful for, most of all the blind individuals and organizations – maybe a hundred for each of the twelve days of Christmas – who confirmed with their words and their purchases that the need and the drive to draw is not limited to people with sight. So many parents and teachers to thank for deciding that...
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