Up: [[Image]] Created: 2023-03-11 Updated: 2025-02-20 # Add In my PKM I still have plenty of the usual suspects — lots and lots of concept notes, process notes, daily notes. But I also have an increasing number of image notes. I want to value the place of experience, memory and possibility, the qualities that constitute an image, and give them a place in my PKM. How do I decide what to add? I ensure that it’s signal not noise by paying attention to what sparks my interest and collecting only that. This makes collecting automatically the smallest part of ARC. I ask myself — Where am I feeling a pop of energy, an emotional response, either positive or negative? Where the energy lives, there’s life force and juice, and an opportunity to go back and open that up. When it comes to inner images, in Jungian work there’s criteria for determining which images are most important to you and you learn to follow your own images in order to find out who you are. See [[Six Ways to Know if It’s Your Image]] With visual images, I might use Nick’s pairing of Hmm or interesting… because… # Relate Relate has two steps and I do them in order at least to start and then, when comfortable, I go back and forth between the two. ### Association The first step is personal connection. It’s called Association in Jungian work. I remind myself of three things: 1. Slow down. Moving quickly is pinning the butterfly to the board. Pause and allow the image to speak. This is true for both inner and visual images. Remember that it is a different kind of thinking I are doing. *It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.* — Vincent van Gogh 2. Break into chunks . If I’m working across notes or if I’m reading a text, break things into any number of sections. This can make a lot jump out. Be literal here, not interpretive. What do I see? If I’m having trouble slowing down or if there’s a lot there, use paper and a pen or marker and sketch it out. Not detail. Just the elements. Stick figures for people. 3. Look at key objects, characters, setting. Consider how I feel. Any signals in my body? For example, tensing up, or a closed throat. These are kernels of meaningfulness. This is the place to ask myself specifically — what does this remind me of? What does this make me think of? ### Amplification The second part of Relate is Amplification. This involves connecting new to known, or perhaps newly rediscovered, known of personal associations. When we amplify, we are making connections beyond personal meaning. Amplifications are the place where I can really work my system at the middle level of emergence. I’m finding that I’m starting to achieve a critical mass of notes that help me with amplification. The images you receive inevitably relate to the interests you have. When it comes to inner images, amplification involves looking at symbol dictionaries, reading myths and fairy tales, sometimes doing some online searching. # Communicate The difference I notice when starting with an image is that have a much easier time coming up with a wide variety of appropriate forms of expression; the content I have quite naturally dictates the form of expression that will suit it; and, most importantly, the combination of personal associations and collective amplifications makes me quite enthusiastic about engaging in the expression, and I end up with a superior result because the expression is very much of my self.