My visual memory is more developed than other kinds of memory. When I meet someone, I tend to remember their name after I have seen it in writing on their business card. That's why I wait a day or so before I enter information on my Palm; to give myself enough time to absorb the visual and recall it.
This morning I came across a visual composed by 4,000 photographs depicting the city of London.
Striking, isn't it? The big picture from a distance suggests a sort of pattern by color. The composition up close shows several frames each telling the visual story from a different angle and perspective. Looking at the photographic compositions it is evident that many of the pictures are still frames of the same object or place from a progression of angles. This may allow people to interact with the visuals and make up their own stories about the city. In a previous post I talked about our fascination with the screen.
This mural is a photographic memory of a community. There may be many relationships between places and people built into the whole. Each person who visits with it can still zoom into a specific part of the mural, the part that agrees with their worldview and engages them personally. That is the part of the story that will resonate with their experience, because it connects directly to it.
It is different for each person. Each of us sees the world as we are. There is a lesson here for communicators.