The Visual Divide

What you see above is the painting entitled "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt. It is one of the late Austrian's more famous paintings and is also the current wallpaper of my computer monitor. It's also a great ice breaker whenever I have my European clients drop by and I get to project the image onto a big screen. I just love it.

I love it so much that I can actually imagine what it would feel, smell or taste like if the actual painting itself was physically present in front of me. Going further still, I can actually imagine being immersed in a 3D version of the painting and walk amongst the gilded swirls depicted in it and view the couple at different angles. In fact, just for kicks, I can imagine an infinite number of permutations that the image can take in a variety of dimensions. As I said, I love it.

Come to think of it, I usually indulge in this sort of visual play in images or concepts that I hardly have any strong emotions for. Somehow it's just the way that I think.

If you're an architect or someone in some other form of career or field that is indulgent on the graphic, we're probably making a connection right now. You too have probably walked through a house yet unbuilt and actually smelled the paint and felt the floor rub against the sole of your shoes all in the universe you call your mind.

It's nothing special really. It just is.

Well, maybe for us. The reality is, thinking in visual terms is not as common as we would want it to be. If it was, all construction sites would be just perfect and more architects and engineers would be holding hands and playing nice to each other. Heck, there might not be a need for people like architects anymore.

This difference in perceptions between the "vision-able" and the "visionless" is what I would like to call the "Visual Divide".

Case in point, a structural engineer walks to my office and sees the same Klimt masterpiece plastered on my computer desktop.

He points to it and says in a most incredulous tone, "You have THAT as a wallpaper?!".

"Why yes," I replied, " I like paintings."

I couldn't for the life of me at that time think why it would seem to him that it would be such a stretch for me to have some piece of "classy" art in my office. Actually I was amused and thought to myself that, well, I probably don't project myself to be such a "classy" guy I guess. I can probably blame it on the weird assortment of CDs occupying my desk. I have everything from Maroon 5's "Songs About Jane" to The Darkness' "Permission to Land" but no "classic" in sight. No Beethoven, Tchaikovsky or Mozart. The closest thing I got to what I deem to be a "classic" would probably be my 10,000 Maniacs "MTV Unplugged" CD. Well I digress, and my mind is in a hundred different places right now. Short attention span you know. I blame TV and all that jazz.

Well, the structural engineer (still remember him?) did say something after my short reply that immediately brought my mind back to earth after wandering off into space.

"Why would you have a picture of an aerial photograph of land as your wallpaper?" he said scratching his head.

"Excuse me?" I said, "What did you say?"

Well I did hear him the first time but I just wasn't sure if he really said it like I heard it. He did repeat what he said and no he wasn't joking and yes he did say what I thought he said.

"Can't you see the couple?" I asked.

"What couple? On the aerial photo?" he said with a glazed look in his eyes probably wondering if the photo was some sort of "Magic Eye" trick.

I probably can't blame him if my computer monitor was small but it was almost 30" big. He just can't see past the "golden swirlies" I guess.

"I guess it might seem to look like an aerial photo to others" I said. And with that I ended my brutal torture before he drove me mad and convinced me that it was actually an aerial photo on my wallpaper all along.

We then proceeded to talk about a project we were doing.

I bring out a section drawing out of some construction documents a client gave us and briefed him on what kind of structural system I wanted to use on a new addition we needed to make. He scanned the drawing over and over but for some reason there's that bothersome glazed look again on his face.

"Is this a plan or a section?" he asked.

"It's a section" I said.

Pulling out another section drawing I begin to sketch a human figure on the drawing standing beside one of the columns to hopefully help him visualize it better.

"Is this a plan or a section?" he asked again.

"It's a plan and that's a person lying down on the floor dead!" I said.... in my mind as I struggled not to pull out my hair one by one.

"It's a section" I said again.

I then had an idea and pulled out a stuctural framing plan and suddenly he's on fire. The guy was just non-stop with his ideas on how to make the structural system work. We've made contact and the world is all smiles again.

I would think that everyone just has that certain language or culture they are most familiar with. It would be real great if we can know all of them or at least strive to.