Dots rule

Have you ever noticed that once you get started on a subject or your attention is caught by something, it seems to be everywhere afterwards? It must be some law, because it happens to me all the time. Lately I have been dotted, so it seems.

Recentely I picked up the newspaper and read about News Dots. Its a fun way to link all the news in a visual way with... Yes indeed: DOTS. I coulnd't help but google for news dots. It's fun and interactive and got  me wondering if there is anything in it, useable for my BJP next year. Somehow of course, not only the news but everything and everyone is connected. So will be my monthly journals as well. I haven't decided on anything yet , but I am sure the thought will come back. Next I followed the link on the Slatest website, and realized how wonderful and powerful a tool visualisation is. It is a universal language and I guess that it was the same power that grabbed me when I first encoutered the BJP and visual journaling as such.

I copied some images from the Flare website. And even though I don't know what these graphs are about,  aren't they beautiful? In reality they are interactive. When you visit the flare website and go over the demo-graphs with your mousicon, you will notice that around the circle words will light up in different colours, connecting with lines that also are highlighted. It awoke a sense of awe in me. How about this one?

It reminds me of a tree, it reminds me of the 4 seasons, it reminds me of the elements, it reminds me of reaching out to someone or something, it represents growht, it ...

Apart from its practical meaning (which it was obviously designed for) it has an inner beauty all because of its simplicity. It doesn't matter it wasn't designed to be pretty, it just is. Robin Atkins blogged about visual journaling some time ago and mentioned the diversity in languages used by different artists in journaling, some more obvious conveying a message, some more hidden. Neither one being better than the other, all beautifull of their own accord.

So I would like to close with these quotations: 

"Beauty is a harmonious relation between something in our nature and the quality of the object which delights us."

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French mathematician, physicist and philosopher

"Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself."

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist and dramatist.