Visualisation, or, the Mind's Eye.

I was watching a documentary on ABC2 the other night about war photography. It was very interesting - and heart wreching - and one of the interviewees said something that has stuck with me solidly since I heard it.

He said (paraphrased): when we imagine scenes in our mind, do we imagine them as moving images or as still photographs?

I actually had to think about this and I wasn't entirely sure. At first I was positive that I imagined things as moving images, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that no, I imagine things as still photographs, snapshots if you will. I thought about the opening battle scene from Gladiator, remembering a discussion I'd had with Cav some years back about a similar thing, and realised that yes, my mind focuses on the scene as a series of snapshot stills rather than a moving scene.

This led me to realise that when I come up with a scene that ends up being the starting point for a story, I see it either as a jumble of words with a still picture or as a still picture. So, imagining a 'scene' isn't as accurate as I'd thought to describe the process, rather, imagining a still photograph from a scene. Which is an even narrower view of what ends up being written down.

It struck me as interesting, so now I ask: how do you all imagine things, see things in your mind's eye? Is it as a still photograph image or a moving scene?

Visualisation, or, the Mind's Eye.

I was watching a documentary on ABC2 the other night about war photography. It was very interesting - and heart wreching - and one of the interviewees said something that has stuck with me solidly since I heard it.

He said (paraphrased): when we imagine scenes in our mind, do we imagine them as moving images or as still photographs?

I actually had to think about this and I wasn't entirely sure. At first I was positive that I imagined things as moving images, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that no, I imagine things as still photographs, snapshots if you will. I thought about the opening battle scene from Gladiator, remembering a discussion I'd had with Cav some years back about a similar thing, and realised that yes, my mind focuses on the scene as a series of snapshot stills rather than a moving scene.

This led me to realise that when I come up with a scene that ends up being the starting point for a story, I see it either as a jumble of words with a still picture or as a still picture. So, imagining a 'scene' isn't as accurate as I'd thought to describe the process, rather, imagining a still photograph from a scene. Which is an even narrower view of what ends up being written down.

It struck me as interesting, so now I ask: how do you all imagine things, see things in your mind's eye? Is it as a still photograph image or a moving scene?