“Indeed, writing was in a sense invented largely to make something like lists.”  (Ong [*])

Writing can refer to the act of transcription, the making of marks on the page that can be used to recall the exact words spoken, but writing can also produce notes that trigger the memory of the writer to recall more than the words on the page.

The interpreter in this video transforms sound into memories which are associated with the marks on the page (during the first 8 minutes of the video), and later recalled and translated into sound (starting at 8:10) – an example of an H-LAM/T at work, using writing as a support for her trained memory.

“The notion that writing unifies the mind . . . the reflexive character of writing allowed the writer to define his mind out of the confusion of thoughts and emotions that are experienced.” (Bolter [*])

Writing doesn’t only reduce external sounds to the silent space of the page; we can use writing to organize dynamic thoughts, and reorganize them into ordered spaces in the mind.  Writing, by giving a lasting, visible form to evanescent sound, gives us a way to transform a “tsunami of data” (Wurman, quoted in etec540 notes [*]) into ordered, categorized lists and linked, associative hypertexts.

A researcher uses writing as part of the process that organizes raw data into meaningful associations.  Notice how the H-LAM/T in the next video regards the note-book as an essential tool for research.  The ephemeral soundscape is transformed into a visible, spatially organized set of notes and images.