Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
tions between curiosity and knowledge. One may
want to know, if curiosity causes a need for seeking
knowledge (from the biblical times of Eden) and
for explorations about events, discovering rules
behind them, and devising new things, how is
curiosity correlated with person's intelligence and
creativity. Fostering curiosity might foster intel-
ligence and vice versa. John Roder and scientists
from the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of
Mount Sinai Hospital (no author, Medical Re-
search News, 2009) have discovered a molecular
link between intelligence and curiosity; some of the
molecules acting on the brain regions that control
learning and memory also control curiosity. This
knowledge may lead to the development of drugs
that improve learning. One may also want to know
how does curiosity depend on one's knowledge
and general education. One may reflect on another
side of this question: why in history of mankind
curiosity has been punished.
Curiosity may be focused on other people,
things, or ideas. One may wonder in what ways cu-
riosity about other people supports psychologists
and psychiatrists, historians, writers, biographers,
anthropologists, archeologists, geographers, and
private investigators. Curiosity about things, pro-
cesses, and events seems to be a great support,
if not a condition, of successful research in biol-
ogy, cosmology and astrophysics, to name a few.
When curiosity singles out a need of searching for
patterns and order in nature, one may ask how it
actually supports mathematicians, philosophers,
astronomers, theorists about science and religion.
Curiosity makes one's mind active, so curious
people exercise their intellect, ask questions, and
search for answers; it makes one observant of new
ideas; opens new worlds and brings excitement to
one's life; as Albert Einstein wrote, “the important
thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy
curiosity” (Lifehack, 2012). Curious people are
quick to notice and recognize new ideas; they don't
miss opportunities and discover new possibilities
that attract their attention, cause their eagerness,
and provide excitement.
Investigations into curiosity have usually been
pertaining young children; not much thought can
be found in literature about adult curiosity, as if a
condition of being curious couldn't be considered
serious enough to be pursued in a scientific way.
However, someone who is curious about people,
things, or ideas is on a quest of knowledge, on
voyage of discovery about the reason and the
best use of one's brain, while without intensive
brainwork and mental effort many of us become
unhappy. It seems true what a Spanish painter and
printmaker Francisco Goya (1746-1828) wrote in
one of his prints of the
Caprichos
(Goya, 2012),
“The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.” Due to
the curious nature of most people, many explore
further opportunities for their personal explora-
tions and production. Some artists map numbers
into sensory experience. For example, Dunn and
Clark (1999) performed the sonification of pro-
teins, Sturm (2005) recorded the ocean buoy data,
while Evans (2011) created visualization of sound
as an image, as well as sonification of an image
into sound, thus creating the visual rendition of
a music form as music for the eyes.
IMAGERY
Imagery plays an indirect role in making asso-
ciations - mental connections between thoughts,
feelings, ideas, or sensations related to different
kinds of perception through the senses. We can
remember (or even imagine) a feeling, emotion,
or sensation linked to a person, object, shadow
or even illusion of a shadow, sound, or idea. In
an article “Seven Types of Visual Ambiguity: On
the Merits and Risks of Multiple Interpretations
of Collaborative Visualizations” Eppler, Mengis,
& Bresciani (iV 2008, 391-396) examined visual
ambiguity. Visuals catalyze collaboration (Sawyer,
2007). Ambiguity or the openness to multiple inter-
pretations typifies visualizations such as sketches,
diagrams, visual metaphors, etc., sometimes
causing misunderstandings but often offering the
