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recurring thoughts the driver may have during
his long, often stressful travel. While he may be
thinking about the meat and seafood tightly packed
in his truck's cargo area, he may hope that living
creatures will survive everything what happens to
them. However, in spite of our efforts they often
become listed as endangered species.
with metaphors the structure and the relations
among data. Depictions of simple objects can
often be seen in art works, serving as metaphor-
ical statements, a container for cognitive constructs
about the theme and the artist's thoughts on the
theme. Common, primary components of our
environment, such as raindrops, snowflakes, and
simplified animal shapes may serve as a carrier
of a notion. In cognitive terms, art works loaded
with natural metaphors may thus be charged with
meaning.
We may find a pervasive use of metaphors
in literature, visual arts, and music. Some artists
map the data into sensory experience. Auditory
metaphors seem essential for music theory and
appreciation. Zbikowski (1998, 2005) stressed how
much cognitive science research on metaphor has
to offer music theory, “There seems little doubt
that musical analyses are not scientific explana-
tions, but metaphorical ones. It remains to explore
the nature and depth of these metaphors, and, in
doing so, to come to a better appreciation of the
processes through which we organize our under-
standing of music” (Zbikowski 1998). According
to Desain and Honing (1992, 1996), metaphors
in music theory inform and shape the ways we
theorize about music: tempo is often compared to
walking or moving, while the harmonic, melodic,
rhythmic, and time related progression of music
is characterized by flow or motion.
See Table 1 for Your Visual Answer.
METAPHORS USING ICONIC AND
SYMBOLIC IMAGES
In a visual metaphor one thing serves as a sym-
bol representing another; for example, common
symbols shown below (Figure 3) are metaphors
that can be found everywhere, starting from a clip
art included in writing software.
Images that have iconic properties or are used
as generally accepted symbols are extensively
used for visualization of the hard to explicate
objects and notions. Interactive, real-time knowl-
edge visualization methods use graphic templates,
metaphors, mapping, diagrams, sketches, and
other visual ways of explorations and narrations
(Knowledge Communication.org, 2011). Signs,
symbols, and metaphors in art, graphic design,
and visual storytelling may support visual com-
munication, organize and structure information
graphically and convey human insight about the
represented information through the key charac-
teristics of the visualization metaphor. When we
deal with several kinds of data, we may describe
Figure 3. Common clip art symbols serving as visual metaphors (public domain, free clipart published
online)
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