Spatial Puzzles

Spatial Puzzles contains 201 unique and visually challenging puzzles. Beautifully presented, it passes easily as an elegant eye-piece for the coffee table. This book is designed primarily for the puzzle enthusiast. It can, however, be of some use for any number of other vocations. The practice of learning to 'see' and to draw, to visualize three-dimensional objects in your mind and put them to paper, truly has inestimable value. Whether you are a new homeowner-to-be contemplating future house plans, a Buddhist practicing aspects of non linear thinking, or simply someone interested in the field of drawing, working with Spatial Puzzles can improve your drawing and visualization abilities. It has been the author's experience that most people have difficulty drawing. Their ability to express an idea in the form of some physical shape on paper is limited at best and often detrimental to the communication process itself. The figure drawn might either be incorrect or designate some physical aspect other than that which is desired or intended. This leaves a kind of quasi, verbal / charade-like form of communication which is generally ineffectual for the transmittal of two-dimensional ideas. And it is this creation and transmittal of two-dimensional thought which is the foundation of all of the truly creative arts. The inability to draw does not stem simply from a lack of training or exposure to the field of drawing but also from an inability to see . That is, in the sense of seeing what is actually there to see, without the human filter of thought and knowledge to intervene and distort an object's appearance. Looking at an object through this filter of thought and knowledge immediately does several things. First, the object is recognized as something identifiable and familiar in the world. Next, having identified the object, the brain assigns a kind of 'physicality' to it based on its past exposure and memory of it. This assigned physicality then becomes a form of filter to seeing; the object viewed is now being seen with a kind of shape template based on one's stored, visual experiences. Drawing a viewed object in this manner more often than not becomes a kind of blending of what is seen with what is known or understood about the object. Drawing can be taught. Learning to see, particularly when dealing with new and unknown visuals, is more difficult and is partially the focus of the puzzles contained in this book. The format of Spatial Puzzles is designed to draw on one's ability to see and thus, through use and, hopefully, enjoyable practice, to develop that ability. It also draws on the ability to think in a non-linear manner, as many of the puzzles intentionally present themselves in a deceiving light. The best of these puzzles require a kind of epiphany of non-linear thought, which in itself is half the fun.