Ward Shelley: Hand- Painted Visualizations (via Brain Pickings)

How to visualize complex information has always been difficult - and today, with ever more information, it gets harder and harder. Given that communication is a critical skill (and asset) of leaders, this work seems to me be helpful and indeed at the leading edge.

Ward Shelley (who I discovered through Brain Pickings) is a leading exponent of how to visualize the complex. He works over time (Who invented the Avant-Garde, The influences and impact of Frank Zappa, The story of the Beat Poets etc).

It is far more than sketchy mind mapping - it is art in its own right, and has levels of detail which are both informative and astounding.

To quote Ward:

"It is the mutually formative effects of subject/mind and object/world that gives shape to the space that exists between them. These paintings are a record of this shaping process. They are about the struggle of form to express content in the cognitive space that exists between the Subject (us) and the Object (the world). If that cognitive space is a territory, these paintings are landscapes of that territory." 

Here's a painting that tracks "Who invented the Avant-Garde ...

 

 

Please fully respect the copyright of Ward's work - I only post it here to help other people discover.

Posted via web from mick's posterous