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visualthinkery.bsky.social
Bryan Mathers
@visualthinkery.bsky.social
600 followers 610 following 220 posts
Conversations -> cartoons.

Visual Thinkery: https://visualthinkery.com
Remixer Machine: https://remixer.visualthinkery.com
Zines: https://ulster.visualthinkery.com
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visualthinkery.bsky.social
Making sense of Sensemaking...
The new edition of The Visual Thinker is out - for those that like to make sense of things...
bryanmmathers.com?mailpoet_rou...
A landscape showing a hot air balloon entitled "Characteristics of Sensemaking" - thinking by Karl E. Weich, thinkery by Bryan Mathers.
November 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
It's not unusual for my sense-making cartooning process to produce rhyming triplets it seems...

Created along with some other AI reflections for the Visual Thinker > buff.ly/LIXLRwQ
#ai #cartoon
Computer says No. Search says Go. AI says hello!
October 23, 2025 at 11:40 AM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Sometimes a contrast just presents itself - embedded within a conversation... I enjoyed sense-making with the Mycelial Network at a two-day gathering of people involved in Community Asset Development - distilling out conversational themes as they surfaced...
An cartoon by Bryan Mathers, Visual Thinkery showing a signpost with "Change maker" written below contrasted with a wooden fence with "Gatekeeper" written below.
October 16, 2025 at 3:10 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Monday's webinar on Carbon Finance and Climate Action expertly facilitated by Fauna & Flora, Plan Vivo, and Level was bursting with ideas! — here’s how the visual sense-making evolved in real time...
October 15, 2025 at 3:10 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Delighted to see Leigh, Geraldine and Sheena's work on Assessment for Inclusion published. Here's a visual thought to emerge from the project:

Research buff.ly/jYk9L0a

@gravesle.bsky.social @geraldineoneill.bsky.social @sheenahyland.bsky.social
Cartoon, Emoji faces stacked on top of each other in a staggering pile. The emojis at the bottom of the pile are red with sad and disappointed faces, in the middle of the pile they are orange with neutral expressions, and at the top they are yellow smiling happily. hand drawn black Text to the middle right of pile reads "The issue with ranking".
July 22, 2025 at 12:11 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Make your research come alive with Visual Thinkery - this time using the playful mask of a cartoon character to explore a very serious topic: different types of PhD supervisors!
(created for GO-GN Guide to Doctoral Supervision) with @rfarrow.bsky.social.

buff.ly/s2lm2ee
Cartoon, ten penguins stand next to each other in two rows of five. Each has their own prop and/or costume relating to their title. The first row of penguins (from left to right) are labelled "The pragmatist, The Philospher, The Unknown, The Explorer and The Maverick." The second row "The Famous Scientist, The Absent Minded Professor, The Wizard, The Maestro and The Master."
July 21, 2025 at 12:09 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Recently, I've really enjoyed stepping into academic researcher's worlds to bring their thinking and findings to life, like this collaboration with @gravesle.bsky.social and @geraldineoneill.bsky.social at University College Dublin, around their work on Educator use of GenAI.

buff.ly/s2lm2ee
Cartoon, a man holds a human skull to his eye-level and says "To use GenAI or not to use GenAI that is the question..."
July 17, 2025 at 12:07 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
What an interesting little tool!

#DailyRemix by Galgalon

Here's a link to the O'meter Remix:
buff.ly/k4dU4TB
Cartoon, o-meter tool labelled "Fan-o-Meter" Split into seven sections labelled (Starting left to right) "Epic, Based, Chill, Average, Cringe, Pathetic, Braindead". The needle of the o-meter is pointing to section "Epic" at the bottom left. The band of colour behind the sections of the o-meter is a gradient of bright leaf green to fire engine red.
July 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Ladders, see-saws, giant gas planets and blue whales. Just a few visual metaphors used in this fascinating report on Fiscal Hosting by the Thirty Percy Foundation. It was a pleasure to work with their team!

Report >> buff.ly/aFbHHDO
Cartoon, A see-saw with a woman calmly sat on the left side and a man dangling his legs in panic on the right, tipping down to the left and lifting up to the right. Above the woman is text "Power" written in blue. Below the man is text "Risk" written in Red.
July 7, 2025 at 12:17 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
The latest edition of the Visual Thinker - about magic hats, HAL9000, cognitive amplification, and lots of AI cartoons...

buff.ly/7Ghrfnf

#cartoons #ai
June 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Following on from the recent AI related drawings, here's some magical thinkery from a comment by Helen Beetham during a live conversation on #AI in Education.

Image available to use CC-BY-ND here:
buff.ly/DZNEeVt
Cartoon, detailed hardback book with raspberry red cover, with white text "An Educator's Repository of ethical statements to opt out and other spells". To the bottom left of the cover a black and white hand pointing up with lines appearing above the finger.
June 24, 2025 at 12:13 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
The latest edition of the Visual Thinker - about magic hats, HAL9000, cognitive amplification, and lots of AI cartoons...

buff.ly/7Ghrfnf

#cartoons #ai
Cartoon of three images next to each other: Computer with text "Computer says no" on its screen, to its right is a search bar with text "Search says" in the bar and "Go" in the search button, to the right of the search bar is the ChatGPT logo with speech bubble to its right saying "AI says hello!"
June 23, 2025 at 12:09 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Is it possible to ethically engage with an unethical tool? Maybe it's naive to call AI a tool - when it consists many tools within many systems...

Drawn from a live conversation on #AI with @dougbelshaw.com and @epilepticrabbit.bsky.social

Image available to use CC-BY-ND here:
buff.ly/DZNEeVt
cartoon, hand drawn black text "Ethically engaging with an Unethical tool". the 'i' in "Ethically" is a daisy flower. To the top left of Text is a yellow closed-eye smiley face emoji with a halo, and to the bottom left of text is a red, angry devil emoji.
June 19, 2025 at 12:06 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
What makes you distinctively human? (It might not be your humour. Still, outsourcing that to #AI might actually be a step forward...)

Image available to use CC-BY-ND here: buff.ly/Hy62PmZ
(greyscale cartoon) Man drawn from waist up, hands tucked behind his back, with a speech bubble to his right saying "I'm focusing on the stuff that makes me Distinctively human..." To the right is a hand drawn Chat GPT logo with a speech bubble to its right saying "Dad jokes? How very predictable..."
June 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
I'll always enjoy seeing a new Hat Tip Remix popping up on the machine!

#DailyRemix by @marendeepwell.bsky.social‬

buff.ly/CwvLm7m

Here's a link to Hat Tip Remix:
buff.ly/e5NBStC
Hat Tip remix: (cartoon) A hand with fair skin is holding a forest green snap back cap by its mustard yellow brim. On the head of the cap is tangerine orange text "h/t". To the left of the cartoon is text "Thanks for all the blogging!".
June 17, 2025 at 11:43 AM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
The comments that appear in open dialogue are always worth reflecting on. Here's a Kierkegaard quote from a conversation about #AI in #Education last week.

Image available to use CC-BY-ND here: visualthinkery.com/project/ai-f...
Greyscale cartoon of a man with short hair driving a car, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the gearstick, whilst he checks his rearview mirror and whistles along to a song on the radio. On the dashboard is text "h/t Kierkegaard". Above the cartoon is text "Life is lived forward but it understood backwards" (Kierkegaard quote).
June 17, 2025 at 11:15 AM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
I had the pleasure of live cartooning a webinar on AI and the future of education. facilitated by ‪‪dougbelshaw.com‬ and ‪epilepticrabbit.bsky.social‬ of weareopen.coop‬.#AILiteracyc#AIA#Cartoonon

This is image is available to use under a CC licence here:
https://buff.ly/Hy62PmZ
June 12, 2025 at 12:28 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
This get-together of huddles focused on social change in Birmingham, UK with @econjusticebrum.bsky.social‬ was truly inspiring!

As each huddle spoke, I captured some of the things they pointed to. Here's the session condensed to 30 seconds...

#Huddlecraft
June 10, 2025 at 12:07 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Butterflies are always welcome!

#DailyRemix by Simona-Marinela Serban.

Here's a link to the Morpho Remix:
buff.ly/RCkVeuj
Navy blue square background, Baby pink circle middle ground and a large butterfly taking up most of the square in the foreground. It has ocean blue wings with black lines, baby pink dots at middle tops of the wings and turquoise dots around the edges. The wing pattern similar to a Monarch butterfly.
June 5, 2025 at 12:04 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Ground is just a line.
(to a cartoonist anyway...)
This was my initial reflection when my intern Gracie sent me a #DoodlePingPong with the prompt "ground". Then I had an idea. I sketched 4 different grounds between my shed (where visual thinkery happens) and my kitchen (where tea-making happens.)
June 2, 2025 at 3:10 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
What an interesting image created with Voronoi, loving the colours!

#DS106 #DailyRemix by Kevin Hodgson

Here's a link to the Voronoi Remix:
buff.ly/mEF14gb
Voronoi Mosaic remix of a wooden guitar with a metal resonator.
May 28, 2025 at 12:06 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
The Project World Remix was created so that I could have a globe, which is fully interactive, to use as an accurate reference for my cartoons. It's been brilliant to see how people have used this resource over the years!

#DailyRemix #Globe

Here's a link to the Project World Remix:
buff.ly/LgwjP5T
Zoomed in picture of England and Ireland on the globe, the countries are pink with white outlines and the ocean is blue.
May 22, 2025 at 12:07 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
If you're wondering what station keeps bees on its roof and has a fancy piano donated from the man Elton John himself...

It's St. Pancras!

Well done to everyone who guessed correctly during this weeks Remix Countdown challenge.

#DailyRemix #Trainstations

Underground Remix:
buff.ly/JMR7Nbl
Underground Roundel Remix: The circle outline is firetruck red and the rectangular banner is navy blue with white text "St. Pancras"
May 21, 2025 at 12:34 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Here is todays clue, created with the new Underground Remix, to help you try and guess one particularly well known train station, before all is revealed tomorrow...

Good luck!

#DailyRemix #Trains #Trainstation

Underground Remix:
buff.ly/JMR7Nbl
Underground Roundel Remix: The circle outline is firetruck red and the rectangular banner is navy blue with white text "Elton's Piano".
May 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
visualthinkery.bsky.social
Here's a twist on the Remixer Countdown challenge, using the new Underground Remix model! This week, each day I will post a different Underground Roundel, acting as a clue to help you guess a certain famous station...

This is todays clue, good luck!

#DailyRemix

Underground Remix:
buff.ly/JMR7Nbl
Underground Roundel Remix: The circle outline is mustard yellow and the rectangular banner is black with white text "Bzzzzz Bzzz".
May 19, 2025 at 12:03 PM