first   iSquare   study

The first 137 iSquares were collected during summer 2011 by Jenna Hartel, Rebecca Noone, and Karen Pollack from graduate students in the Master of Information program at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto.  The images were analyzed using compositional interpretation and a theoretical framework of graphic representations by Yuri Engelhardt. Results are published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, as "An Arts-Informed Study of Information Using the Draw and Write Technique" (Hartel, 2014); the abstract and gallery of results appear below.

Abstract   from  "an   arts-informed  study  of  information  using   the  draw-and-write  technique   by jenna  hartel

There are untold conceptions of information in information science and yet the nature of information remains obscure and highly contested. This paper contributes something new to the conversation as the first arts-informed visual study of information utilizing the draw-and-write technique. To approach the concept of information afresh, graduate students at a North American iSchool were asked to respond to the question "What is information?" by drawing upon a 4" by 4" piece of paper, coined an iSquare.  137 iSquares were produced and then analyzed using compositional interpretation (Rose, 2007) combined with a theoretical framework of graphic representations (Engelhardt, 2002). The findings report how students visualize information; what was drawn; and associations between the iSquares and prior renderings of information based upon words. In the iSquares information appears  most often as pictures of people, artifacts, landscapes, and patterns. There are also many link diagrams, grouping diagrams, symbols, and written text, each with distinct qualities. Following the results, methodological reflections address the relationship between visual and textual data, and the sample for the study is critiqued. A discussion presents the iSquares as an artful, interactive, customized thinking tool that generates and organizes insights about information.

gallery  of  results


Picture

A picture is a graphic representation that  serves to represent the physical structure of physical objects. An  iSquare that is a picture involves a literal correspondence to its referent in the world, which is usually a physical object or scene.


Link  Diagram

A link diagram is a graphic representation that involves the act of linking together sub-objects. It features one or more nodes joined by a connector, usually an arrow or line.


Grouping  Diagram

A grouping diagram is a type of graphic representation that  expresses the categorization of a set of elements. All are illustrated  lists of information phenomena. Sometimes labels are used to identify  graphic sub-objects, underscoring the intent of enumeration. 

Symbol

A symbol is an element of communication intended to represent or stand  for a person, object, group, process, or idea. Despite the fact that a  dot appears three times and a question mark is drawn twice, this set of  iSquares suggests there is no widely held symbol for the concept of  information.

Written  Text

According to Engelhardt, written text is a special case of  graphic representation involving human language that is lined up in the  graphic space and ordered though grammar. The iSquares that qualify as  graphic representations of written text feature language prominently or  exclusively.

Table

Only two iSquares were examples of a table, a type of graphic representation with a simultaneous combination of horizontal separations and vertical separations.

references 

Engelhardt, Y. (2002). The language of graphics: A framework for the analysis of syntax and meaning in maps, charts and diagrams. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Hartel, J. (2014). An Arts-informed study of information using the draw-and-write technique. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 65(7), 1349-1367. [full text available at Selected Works]

Rose, G. (2007). Visual methodologies: An Introduction to interpreting visual materials (2nd ed.). London: Sage.