a burglar in the treasure house by robbin murphy

plumb design's visual thesaurus
http://www.plumbdesign.com/thesaurus





Thesaurus means "treasure house" in Latin and so it seems apt that the origins of this handy writer's tool lie some two hundred years in the past, in the prison cell of an Englishman named Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869) to be more precise. His predicament gives rise to the intriguing image of an unlucky burglar/writer patiently plotting his heist for when he breaks out of his jail (writer's) block unknowing that he is, like all of us, a prisoner of language and can never escape.

However, the truth is that for political reasons, Roget--a quiet and honest student--was unfairly thrown into prison for a year. To pass the time and to keep his wits he turned his philosophically inclined mind to constructing a list of one thousand terms to use as a "repertory" of words embodying ideas. After his release he went on to become a successful physician and scholar and continued to add words and phrases to his list throughout his long life.

In 1852, after he'd retired, Roget published this list as the first Roget's Thesaurus and it was an immediate bestseller--not with philosophers as he'd intended, but with writers who immediately used it to enhance their writing skills. To this day there are not only the descendants of the original work but myriad printed texts using the generic term "thesaurus" published by others as well as electronic versions included in major word publishing applications.

At first, many writers probably feel a certain sense of guilt when they reach for the thesaurus on their desk, or click on the item under the HELP menu on their computer, as if admitting to a failure for not having the entirety of their respective language at their immediate disposal. But the tool's usefulness soon puts that concern to rest as the depth and richness of their writing increases--or appears to. What these books can't do, and what Roget intended, is give us a picture of the way words are intricately linked in a web of meaning very much in the way our minds are set to work by association.

As it happens, Roget was also the person to postulate the theory of "persistence of vision" and discover that images remain on the retina a split second after the source is removed from the visual field. This finding became the basis for, at first, children's toys like flip-books and magic lantern projections, and later, of course, motion pictures.

It is only appropriate that Plumb Design should use the concept of a thesaurus to demonstrate the flexibility of their Thinkmap software. Linked to the WordNet database created by the Cognitive Science Laboratory at Princeton University this java-based program creates "Maplets" that enable users to visualize verbal associations of meaning by creating 3-D animated clusters of words connected by fine lines. Instead of a list of alternatives users see subtle variations with the most appropriate choices appearing as the visually brightest. As you move through the network, words realign and intensify or fade away but they don't immediately disappear. There is that "persistence of vision" worked into it. While a word may no longer be the best choice based on the point of view it is still there, in the distance as a reminder of the complexity of language. The WordNet database from which the "Visual Thesaurus" draws its material is a dictionary based on psycho-linguistic theories (used for artificial intelligence research) containing over 50,000 words and 40,000 phrases arranged into over 70,000 sense meanings and is available from Princeton University for free. Plumb Design has a copy of it on their server for Web access and a stand-alone version that will be compatible with Microsoft Word is in the works. "Visual Thesaurus" is probably not the best productivity-enhancing tool for people who want their information quickly--the temptation to spend time in its game-like environment creating poetical word associations is too great--but the program is wonderful in that it attracts and delights, and resonant because it is a natural learning environment. The "Thinkmap" software that is the engine for "Visual Thesaurus" is a powerful, flexible and responsive tool for displaying any type of complex information by turning the data into animated displays that encourage interaction. "Thinkmap" is also behind the Smithsonian Institution's Revealing Things online exhibit where visitors navigate the exhibit at their own pace and in their own direction depending on their interests but guided by rules defined by the curator. It allows for exploration and interesting juxtaposition of objects without leaving the visitor lost. Raw data can be beautiful in its own way, though it isn't very useful without some kind of organization and interface design. That is why we create data filters. Sometimes online data is left in semi-raw form as lists to scroll down our screens or else it's tarted up with some basic HTML and, if we're lucky, hyperlinks. Rarely is it presented in a manner that we enjoy interacting with and even more elusive is a presentation that allows us to gain deeper meaning as this one does. Mark Tinkler, Plumb Design's Chief Technology Officer and Creative Director who studied architecture and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, is behind both the thesaurus and "ThinkmapÓ"(the latter developed when he was the chief technologist at Razorfish). At 24 he may be a sign of the future--that much-anticipated breed of artist/programmer who instinctively combines aesthetic concerns with object-oriented code, qualities that make him a perfect collaborator as we break into the treasure house of language. OTHER URLs Thinkmap http://www.thinkmap.com/ WordNet http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/ Smithsonian Institution Revealing Things http://www.si.edu/revealingthings/ Razorfish http://www.razorfish.com

© Hyperactive Co. 1998