John McCarthy: “As the Chinese say, 1001 words is worth more than a picture.”
It occurred to me that it would be fun to test the old proverb about the relative values of pictures and words empirically. There can be no empirical test of inherent value, but we can get a pretty good idea of what people value by asking them the right questions. So, suppose you got a bunch of prominent writers and a bunch of prominent photographers, illustrators and other artists working with pictures together. Divide them into pairs and choose topics. Give the writers a thousand words to write about a given topic, and give the visual artists one picture — photo, painting, infographic, whatever — on the same topic. Watch the results unfold. Afterwards, gather responses and see what people’s opinions are.
My main concern isn’t whether a picture is worth a thousand words. I just think the results would be really cool if you got the right people involved.
