had a meeting with John yesterday.
it lasted for about one-and-a-half hours.
John demo-ed a virtual tour of the area around the Opera House in Sydney which one of his colleagues had worked on.
after toying with the idea of simplifying the study (by taking out the orienteering component and just having an exchange / critique of photo collages of various places), i decided against it because doing so would not be tapping the unique affordances of picture messaging - one could carry out the simplified study with conventional camera technology.
the search for an effective pre- and post-test seems to have paid off, and i've come across this really interesting site, by Andrea Meares. if you have the time, go check it out. it is based upon Bill Gaughran's research about a hierarchy of aspects of spatial intelligence, of which orientation is the third (the others being (from less complex to more) image holding / comparing; planar rotation; kinetic imagery and dynamic imagery.
Gaughran writes from the perspective of a CAD engineer, i believe. but much of what he says, and much of what the site authored by the anonymous person says, is of relevance not only to geographers, but also to mathematicians and teachers of Design & Technology.
if you've ever been fascinated by Escher's illusions, the site is definitely worth a visit.
i've been thinking that it's really interesting how my proposed studies seem to have drawn so many seemingly discrete interests of mine together. this is especially evident in my literature review, which is getting a little disorganised, admittedly. who would have thought that there could be a viable doctoral project which would bring together the writings of Tufte, Tuan and Escher, as well as QuickTime VR, cellphones, mental maps of place, messaging and chat, blogs, Structured Academic Controversy, orienteering, WAP, and the democratisation of publishing as afforded by technologies of webs?
it's amazing but true :-)
it's like God is saying "you know all those things that you've been dabbling in, to various extents, over the years? you're finally ready to see how they all fit together as part of a larger plan"
:-)
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