Research Paper on
Metaphorical Thinking as a Problem-solving Tool
Metaphorical thinking is about shaping relationship between different objects or
events. It is about evaluating them and looking for resemblances and
differences. This is a very significant part of the creative process.
Researchers consider that comparison allows us to move forward to new things. A
metaphor is the use of a word or phrase to an object or idea it does not
literally denote. Metaphor calls awareness to a resemblance between two
apparently dissimilar things and, by so doing, finds the kind of creative
tension that has the possible to spark quantum leaps in thinking the kind of
bounding that generates imminent and discovery. In fact, a well-placed metaphor
is a group like a chemical reaction or a successful merger between two
companies. Incredible good can happen when two similar, but different, elements
enter into affiliation with each other. (Ho, M-W and Fox)
Over the years, the photographers use metaphorical thinking. It assist them in
seeing further creatively in other areas of life, too. It also has them in
discovering that there are some strong similarities between the art of bearing
in mind creatively through a camera lens and the art of creative problem
solving.
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There are a number of elements that add to creative photography, and which have
metaphorical equals in the world of creative problem solving. In adding up to
lens selection, the photographer can influence elements like lighting, image
exposure and the angle from which he or she shoots the subject, which can also
be used to compose some highly creative photographs.
Finally, each professional photographer recognizes that shooting pictures is a
numbers game. In other words, the best method to come up with one great image is
to shoot a lot of photographs. During the shooting procedure, it's often hard to
imagine which combination of factors (lens, lighting, exposure and the camera's
point of view) will yield the best images. So professional photographers more
often than not try to shoot a large quantity of shots, realizing that the law of
averages tends to triumph. (Keller) What does all of this have to do with
creativity and problem solving? More than any one might think, because
creativity, like photography, is all about the art of "seeing." In other words,
looking at the same situation as everyone else, but seeing amazing different.
When a person analyzes a problem or chance, he/she may focus in on a single
feature of it, like a telephoto lens does. Other times, they may widen their
mental viewpoint to take in the "bigger picture," like a wide-angle lens does. (Emmeche,
C. & Hoffmeyer, J.,P 1-42)
Like a photographer, they can take a mental "walk" around their problem or
chance to view it from multiple perspectives. This procedure often yields
significant insights and fresh ideas. Likewise, both the photographers and the
innovators are familiar with the significance of quantity in their respective
professions: The best way to come up with a truthfully great idea is to come up
with many ideas. The best way to use metaphorical thinking as problem solving
tools is by looking at your current challenge from your customary, habitual
point of view. That's like digging for gold in a way out vein of rock. Instead,
dig deeper. Take a mental walk around your challenge. Get center in and look at
each aspect of it. Then widen your mental focus and think your challenge in the
background of other trends or forces, as well as like situations others may have
faced. Like the photographer, examine all of the likely variables or things that
may lead to a winning solution. And remember that creativity, like photography,
is all about "seeing" things in a different way about thinking and
discriminating more easily, so you can see the unique elements and factors that
others may have unnoticed in their usual way of looking at the world.
People are inclined to believe of the mind as analogous to current technology.
Over the last few centuries, the mind has been likened to a steam engine,
telephone exchange, and lately, a computer. The mind is more than a computer! (Haraway)
A metaphor is a soft thinking method connecting two different universes of
sense. Examples: Food chain, flow of time, fiscal watchdog. The key to
metaphorical thinking is Similarity. The human mind leans to look for
similarities. A road map is a model or metaphor of realism and helpful for
explanation thing, the Dolby Sound system is like a sonic laundry.
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Metaphorical Thinking are used by a number of systems designing companies for
designing image processing and simulating the human thinking, “Based on our
long-term experience in computer aided pattern creation, we have implemented a
prototype system for computer-aided Dunhuang-style pattern creation. Combined
with the up-to-date technology of expert systems and image processing, our
system successfully simulates the human metaphorical thinking. Recreating
Dunhuang murals arises problems similar to those design problems. One solution
is to not only replicate the existing objects but to create new objects under
fuzzy restrictions, too. As studies in Cognitive Science and Psychology show,
metaphorical thinking is the key aspect in design thinking versus logical
thinking. (rostock.igd.fhg.de)
Extreme logical thinking can smother the creative process, so use metaphors as
way of thinking in a different way about something. Make and look for metaphors
in your thinking, and be conscious of the metaphors you use. Metaphors are
magnificent, so long as we remember that they don't comprise a means of proof,
as by definition a metaphor have to break down at some point.
Metaphorical Thinking is used in designing new system. This move toward help in
the wide use of metaphors in system design and bases this suggestion on the
belief that "espousing metaphor as a design anxiety seems to appeal to sensibly
oriented systems designers" because it "suggests an rendezvous with the world of
the computer user and programmer from side to side familiar and decipherable
objects, as opposed to obscure commands and formal logic. There has been censure
regarding metaphorical use in systems design. Researchers believe that metaphors
have become "forced" and, at times, are very inconsistent. While part of the
metaphor may achieve its goal (e.g. the use of a blank sheet of paper in a word
processor), it does the more robust aspects of the system and prejudice by not
representing certain aspects of system functionality in an enough manner (e.g.
animate drawing functionality on a word processor document).
The use of factual language and dishonors the meaning of metaphors is that
“Metaphors mean what the words, in their most factual understanding, mean, and
nothing more”. It can also be defined as efficiently defend metaphorical
consideration against attacks by taking the place that all language is
metaphorical. According to researchers the primary imminent with respect to IT
is that "we need not accept as predictable the present form and structure
assumed by the computer". The use idea of drawing and how computer could be
redesigned to embrace this bodily act in such a manner that is not possible for
binary logic to achieve. By beginning with the bodily activity of drawing rather
than the general mechanism of binary logic, a dissimilar kind of computer can be
designed.
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How does one successfully use metaphorical consideration during the course of
systems analysis and design? The use of metaphors is intimately tied to the
domain that a programmer is operating within. These metaphors are arrived at as
a result of teamwork between both the designer and the user. Researchers talk
about two intense software design strategies. The first uses the customary
systems development life cycle (SDLC) while the second viewpoint provides the
programmer with the opportunity to use any "method" that is suitable for a
particular problem. When actually designing the software, the significance of
innovation and imagination cannot be modest. Imagination is a pervasive
structuring action by means of which we achieve logical, patterned, united
representations. It is a critical footstep within the postmodern framework to
bring the human constituent back into the technological sight.
References
Pattern Creation, Last modified: 11/05/1998,
http://www.rostock.igd.fhg.de/dunhuang/project/patternE.html
Haraway, D. J. (1976), Crystals, Fabrics and Fields: Metaphors of Organicism in
Twentieth-Century Developmental Biology, Yale University Press.
Emmeche, C. & Hoffmeyer, J. (1991), From Language to Nature: The Semiotic
Metaphor in Biology, Semiotica, 84(1/2), 1-42.
Ho, M-W and Fox, S (eds) (1988), Evolutionary Processes and Metaphors, Wiley,
NY.
Keller, E.F. (1995), Refiguring Life: Metaphors of Twentieth Century Biology,
N.Y.: Columbia University Press.
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