Abstract
Modern society is dominated by words, and most of us don’t think twice about it. We train children to think and learn in linear, word-based ways from a very early age, marginalising alternative ways of processing information and those who use them. Yet a vast majority of individuals are to varying degrees visual and multilayered thinkers. This is often only identified when it manifests as a so-called learning difficulty, and is still not understood. In education, enterprise and the third sector, an absence of diverse, inclusive and holistic thinking processes result in a reduction of both quality and depth of impact. When it comes to helping underserved communities this lacking in particularly felt, where low levels of resource and self-worth, and high levels of trauma or neglect result in an even greater need for an alternative way of thinking, processing and communicating.
The Footnotes Programme has been proven to quickly bring dramatic and lasting breakthroughs to people from many different backgrounds, including those who were previously thought of as beyond the remit of a traditional working solution. It encourages and harnesses the power of picture-based communication, is straightforward to teach, easy to learn and infinitely adaptable to any individual or situation. Footnotes has been taken into multiple humanitarian contexts, most recently with Syrian refugees around the Middle East, and has been embraced by people from many different cultural and social backgrounds — from inhabitants of refugee camps to leaders of International NGOs. Our presence in South Africa is perhaps the strongest outside of the UK.
We work to share these visual, multilayered thinking tools with those within communities in crisis, to enable individuals to realise their own potential, identify needs, and be a part of the change they seek, both personally and for their wider community.
Keywords: Communication, education, visual-thinking, empowering, drawing
Introduction
If design is about the conception and evolution of an idea, and the production of plans that could make it a reality, then Footnotes is about extending design to any and every type of idea or thought process. It is a collection of strategies that help individuals to discover and develop their internal thoughts, feelings and ambitions and then communicate these visually, so as to ultimately bring about change or create something new.
This is a generalised statement, because Footnotes really can be applied in a multitude of ways and to many varied situations. It takes design and makes it a first language — steering users away from the limitations of solely word-based communication, towards less linear and more personalised visual and multilayered thinking, planning, communication, and actioning. This can be applied in all sorts of contexts, including education, business, emotional processing, organisation and creativity.
This paper introduces the idea of Footnotes visual multilayered thinking, giving some explanation of the strategies, and why we believe they work, then sharing real examples of how they are used in different international settings, sectors and disciplines. It will focus in particular on the work of the Footnotes Reach project, which takes the approach into various humanitarian settings, including several South African communities, working with those from different cultures, across all ages, including those with disabilities or extreme so-called learning difficulties, and often uniting those from conflicting people groups. It will also examine some of the unique qualities of this innately design-based programme, with an emphasis on how this is helping to change the world for “the other 90%” through a community capacity building approach, collaborating with people to promote and enable sustainable development and self-reliance. The paper concludes that unlocking multilayered minds of designers is a key to community transformation.
Discussion
What is Footnotes?
Footnotes is a set of strategies that facilitates individuals to think and plan in holistic, pictorial terms, using drawing to both capture and unlock thoughts. These can then be translated into many different ways, as the situation demands. It encourages the use of symbolic vocabulary, by-passing a dominant use of words to help individuals realise and express their internal thoughts and ideas, without the pressure to produce correct sequencing. In this way, visual thinkers are far freer to express themselves and are much more likely to externalise their thoughts. Individuals often go on to turn their drawings into sequenced communications, so that they are able to share these thoughts with others. (West, 2007)
These techniques have been used in a wide variety of contexts, and are increasingly adapted to many aspects of community life all over the world. There are applications in mainstream education, special educational needs, enterprise, the public sector, health and healing, reconciliation, community life and humanitarian aid, with many case studies on the impact that these strategies have, particularly in scenarios way beyond the remit of a traditional working solution.
Just one example of Footnotes being used to help those with complex communication and learning needs, within a humanitarian setting, happened whilst training social workers operating in an under-served community in the Middle East. We were taken to meet one of the more challenging cases they were dealing with at the time. On top of the other daily pressures that this particular family faced, five out of their eight children were classed as deaf and dumb, and they had a very minimal amount of communication in place, which did not include sign language.
Footnotes was seen to very quickly impact those children, just in the brief demonstration workshop that took place, with them finding a “voice” for the first time as they communicated through a drawn visual medium. The excitement from the social workers was highly evident as there had not been any such progress witnessed in this family before, and these dramatic results came about within the space of 30 minutes. An invitation has been made to offer training across the whole region and we look forward to working with them in an ongoing way, transferring knowledge to local professionals so as to sustain a much needed impact on the whole community.
The techniques we are using are underpinned by the Footnotes Grid, a tool for arranging picture-based information. The grid is simply a piece of A4 paper folded four or five times and then unfolded. The folds create a page with 16 (or 32) equal blocks, and into these pictures are drawn, often prompted by particular questions asked either internally or by another. The pictures do not need to be in a linear format – they can be anywhere in the grid. The idea is to create a sort of map of information. Much like a designer comes up with a blueprint for their product, the end result is a visual communication of the internal visions and, where applicable, a set of instructions to carry them out.
The impact of this becomes particularly apparently when multiple grids work together as a system. This is a unique approach that is unlocking the potential of individuals in much needed ways. Footnotes is particularly distinct because it is transferable across all cultures, languages and social settings. It is a multi-national, multi-lingual and multi-agency strategy that brings people together, in a richer and more holistic way than many linear forms of communication and intervention can. This has been called a radical and innovative way of learning and processing information, yet we believe that it’s simply reconnecting with human beings’ inherent ability to see the bigger picture.
One stark example of this impact on the culture of learning comes from a community in the Western Cape of South Africa. This is an area where both the social, and literal, landscapes are comprised of polar opposite conditions. The community at the south end of the main street are home and landowners, whose schools have irrigated playing fields, whilst half a mile up the road the school in the north end is set in arid stony grounds with very limited facilities. We have had the opportunity to share Footnotes in that school several times over the last decade. This so called primary school has students whose appearance suggests are closer to their mid-teens. Academic output was very hampered and any attempts at measuring their ability showed dire results — because many could not read or write, exam papers produced answers of carefully formed letters that had no meaning. The shocking thing is that this is not an isolated case. It seemed nobody believed these students to be capable of anything and all that was done with them added to this theory. The approach of the school, taking their lead from outcome-based teaching methods, was to remove their woodworking and technology workshop to create space for a library — to house a handful of books that many could not read. In the words of one teacher Linda, “We’ve seen that the teaching methods imposed from either the UK or from the states just doesn’t [sic] work.” (Fodor, 2012)
We gave the challenge that the children were far more capable than any believed them to be, and set about getting them to draw grids of their hopes and dreams. Teachers were shocked into silence by the creative ability Footnotes unlocked in the students. Young people who had persistently failed to interact, and never demonstrated any kind of ability even when asked to draw, now filled pages with image after image. Linda also told us that “children that have never spoken English to me were suddenly willing to describe their pictures in English” (Fodor, 2012), which is a significant discovery to make. It seemed no-one knew what the children could actually do, or what was going on under the surface. They had never been asked in a way they could relate to. In fact many of these young people were for the first time evidencing complex thought patterns and high aspirations, such as to be architects or police officers, all as a result of using Footnotes to capture and release their thoughts.
Of course the education system still demands measurability, which most likely means demonstrating an ability to answer exam papers, and Footnotes also offers many strategies to help develop these skills, with educational grids for writing, reading, spelling, essay planning and many more. Yet just to begin, connecting and communicating with the young people was the biggest hurdle they needed to get over and this shift in learning style, embracing a more visual culture, opened a door that was previously not known to exist; drawing in the grids provided this much needed opportunity.
Linda’s observation was that “even though your system comes from the UK we could use it as a really African system of teaching our children. And that’s something that we need, a system that works for South Africa.” (Fodor, 2012) We see design here breaking through as an international language, and we see Footnotes as a global system being totally adapted to a very local setting.
How Footnotes helps
The idea of Footnotes developed out of my own experiences, as both an artist and a schools worker. Classed as a chronic dyslexic, it took many years for me to understand that my struggles in a limiting linear-dominant education system stemmed from my strong visual multilayered thinking tendencies. Setting out as a landscape artist I realised that my very best work was produced whilst under pressure, be it from time or the elements. The lack of control that I had over my situation freed me up to create. When learning to draw, a student is taught to look more at the subject than their drawing, because memory will create a logical response that can be very different to the reality. This need to override the “false logic” of the analytical brain is the same thing that I was experiencing, and other artists through the ages have had similar revelations. Turner is said to have strapped himself to a ship’s mast to experience a storm with all his senses (Butlin & Joll, 1984), as it simply wasn’t enough for him to commit the scene to logical memory, with all the filters and corrections that a subconscious mind can, sometimes unhelpfully, make.
Aware that I was not the only one who could benefit from this realisation, I still had no way in which to harness it — until one day, when working as an artist in resident in a primary school, there were three disruptive boys at the back of a classroom. I decided to get them to draw what they “thought and heard” and — partially so that I could throw it across the classroom easily — folded a piece of paper four times and sent it their way. At the end of the day, the teacher commented on how well the children had behaved and interacted. And so it began, testing and adapting this process for other students, and discovering time and again that not only did it work in the moment but that for some young people it actually changed the way they interacted all of the time.
I believe that this approach succeeds by putting less emphasis on traditionally established ways of thinking. By using a non-linear, visual approach to thinking and communication, the more creative aspects of the brain are unlocked. The extra activity engages the brain in ‘dual processing’: a state of “busyness” that stops one from being over analytical and, ironically, helps those who are easily distracted to focus. This approach — which went on to develop and later become known as ‘Footnotes’ — seemed to provide a way for people to move beyond the limitations that they imposed on themselves, or have had imposed on them, “getting out of their own way” to open new doors in thinking and creating.
This is not something that is only useful to a handful of people, or to those in a troubled setting. I believe that the majority of people — designers included — have been affected by a system based on linear structure that can restrict creativity, vision and output. Footnotes gives both permission, and a tool, to unbox thinking and expand horizons. It captures something of the artistic mind and brings it to a world that has much need for it, in both the ever advancing “developed” regions and with those who have not had the same opportunities.
In particular, this style of communication offers an instant language to anyone in any situation. Because visual comprehension does not require a high level of acquired skill, it enables almost anybody to engage immediately, no matter their level of training or linguistic development. This produces a levelling effect that is non-hierarchical in its nature, counting the contribution of all people as equal, and awarding the same value to any image. That makes Footnotes a programme that is intergenerational and cross-cultural, bridging the gaps between those with particular kinds of learning experiences or expertise. For example, a child has the same ability to read an image as an adult does; they might not interpret the same thing but that doesn’t mean to say it’s not just as important or powerful. Worth is no longer decided on the basis of established rules or modes of expression, and this qualifies those who previously lacked power to contribute in meaningful ways.
Conclusion
Footnotes takes this equalising quality to the 90% whose lives have not been improved by design, to give them a design-based processing and communication strategy that can be used whether or not they’ve ever had a pencil in their hand before, or a voice in the dialogue. It is a tool that can be used to improve life for themselves. This empowerment is crucial to the way that Footnotes Reach works, and is described by the UK charity commission as “ community capacity building” (Charity Commission, 2000). This means that it works with individuals in order to help them better identify and meet their own needs, as well as to participate more fully in society, thus effecting sustainable change within their community. In South Africa, where 50% of young people are unemployed (Yueh, 2014) and only a third of those newly entitled are registered to vote (BBC News, 2014), what’s needed is a change at the very heart of how individuals, and communities, engage with themselves and each other.
Einstein is famously attributed to have said, “If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it”, and perhaps one can infer from this that if you can picture it, you can understand it. That has certainly been the experience of Footnotes. And with that understanding comes the hope, and the vision, that if we can help people to visualise both their situation and their solution then they will realise for themselves the ability they’ve got to make an impact on their lives and their communities. This hope, together with the practical way that Footnotes brings people from very disparate backgrounds together, is the reason we believe that unlocking multilayered designer minds is an important key to community transformation; as much for those wishing to help as for those in crisis.
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