Image Seeking for Metaphors and Concepts
A metaphorical image with a magnifying glass.
A Short Challenge
If I told you to find a photo of your favorite animal, how will you do this?
Most likely this way
The results of a google image search yields many thumbnail images of puppies.
Millions of puppies at your fingertips...
So What's the Problem?
It begins with a "C" and has a circle around it!
A dog and a puppet stare at each other, a copyright symbol is in the middle
creative commons licensed (BY-NC-SA) flickr photo by Armando G Alonso ✈︎:
http://flickr.com/photos/argonavigo/10104588033
Wait! There is Something We Can Do!
Compfight CC licensed flickr photos (compfight.com)
Search results
Wikimedia Commons CC licensed and public domain photos (commons.wikimedia.org)
Search results on wikimedia commons
Search for puppies on Wikimedia Commons
Creative Commons (search.creativecommons.org)
search results from creative commons
Search for puppies on Creative Commons
Pixabay – public domain photos (pixabay.com)
Search results from pixabay
Unsplash – public domain photos (unsplash.com)
Search results from unsplash
Search for puppies on Unsplash
Literal Searches Are Easy, What About Searching for Metaphors?
If you seek pictures of an object or a precise thing, than keyword searches work fine. But how would you represent concepts like:
Words like "aggression", "courage", "trust", "rigor"
This calls for a slightly different approach to searching, something I call ImageSeeking. This was originally available as a Mozilla Teaching Kit (licensed Creative Commons CC BY-SA)
Cover of Activity, with an image of boy looking through binoculars
ImageSeeking For Fantastic Visual Metaphors
In ImageSeeking we find new keywords based on a series of questions that aim at what the concept looks like when you see it in the world.
WHAT ADJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES DEMONSTRATE THIS WHEN SEEN IN THE WORLD?
WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE, OBJECTS, ANIMALS HAVE THIS AS AN ATTRIBUTE OR ARE ASSOCIATED WITH IT?
WHAT KINDS OF LOCATIONS, PLACES DOES IT OCCUR?
WHAT ADDED WORD MIGHT SUGGEST A MORE SPECIFIC INSTANCE OF IT (E.G. INTRODUCING A CHARACTER, ANIMAL)?
Save your keywords for each question, then apply them in the open licensed search tools above.
What's the Best Way To Find Images You Can Reuse?
Make them yourself!
A boy looks through a large camera at a smiling girl right in front of the lends.
2014/465/123 I am Ready For My Closeup flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)
This material is from the Picture This! web site developed for Ontario Extend, see the photography tips there.