Of all my memory devices, the Visual Alphabet is probably the one I use most after the The Bestiary.
Basically, it is a peg system – information is pegged onto each item in the sequence. The most familiar peg system is 1-sun, 2-shoe, 3-tree and so on. But 7 gives you heaven and so 11 gives you a problem. Nothing else rhymes!
In Medieval times, they also used visual alphabets. These were alphabets created using images of objects to link to ideas. One of the most beautiful is that of Giovannino de Grassi created in 1390.
I combined a number of Medieval techniques to create my Visual Alphabet, in particular making each image link to the next visually so I didn’t need to go back to the letter and alphabet each time. When I was at the Rat I knew that the Skull came next. If I can’t remember what is next, I can always think “R is rat and then comes S which is skull”. But I never have to do that, I know it so well. Here is one page of the six which are in Memory Craft.
I would have much rather have done the 26 characters as a sequence, rather than split them onto six pages, but that wouldn’t work for printing the book. In the above image, Quetzalcoatl is entwined with the teal of the panther for the previous page.
I have had a lot of emails from people who use either my Visual Alphabet or one of their own and find them incredibly effective. I was delighted to receive an email with images from Ann Bidstrup who runs Heart Art in Park Orchards. In last term’s Art for Well Being workshops the women created concertina books for their personal Visual Alphabets , here are twelve of them. They look wonderful.
I love them! I hear that they work really well.
Interestingly, these artists don’t include the letters, just the characters. I am going to try that. I originally designed my Visual Alphabet as a continuous image like these before I had to convert it to suit inclusion in Memory Craft. But I always included the letter. I now think that this may be better. I am going to do mine again as a concertina book like these.
I use my Visual Alphabet for all public speaking, for temporary bird lists when out birding [no need to carry a pen and paper – we record them when we get home]. I use it for to-do lists, shopping lists … anything temporary.
4 comments
Skip to comment form
Hi Lynne,
I am reading your book and having bit trouble finding a starting point for practise. I think beastiary might be good starting point for me.
Question i have about beastiary is how important is the artwork? Characters i have chocen and my art skills do not agree. I have two approaches that i am thinking 1. Doing it digitally. I would download images from internet and copy and paste the characters to the artwork. This way it would be really hard for me to convey interaction between characters. 2nd approach is drawing, which would mean a lot of time and work.
Would it work if i did plain digital version, which would give me the order then i would make it more alive with my imagination?
Author
Hi Matti,
“Question i have about beastiary is how important is the artwork?”
Good question – the artwork is trivial. Even a stick figure will do. But downloading characters is a really good way to go. You only need an image of them to become familiar with. You can work from a list – I do that for my French Bestiary because I have not found the time to draw it.
Once you have the character list, and images from any source, you then just use your imagination. You don’t actually need any artwork. The characters will gain a life of their own and you can throw away the images eventually. Most of those I work with every day now bear little resemblance to those I drew – they have become real characters to me.
The best thing you can do is dive in and try it out – and relax about it. If your brain wants to do things a different way – then go with it. We are all so different!
I do hope that helps.
Lynne
Those are wonderful!
I’ve now printed your PDF as a 6-up onto one A4 page and made a pocket accordion.
Do you have a method for ‘wiping clean’ or purging the space once you don’t want to remember anymore? Or do they self-cleanse?
Author
What a good idea. I might try that too.
I don’t wipe the visual alphabet. Without revision, it will fade anyway. The trick is to avoid revising. But I have no trouble next time I want to use it. Love the term ‘self-cleanse’.
Lynne