information/internet/librarian
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A visual research project conducted by the students of INF1300: Foundations of Library and Information Science at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto |
overview
INF1300: Foundations of Library and Information Science is a required course in the University of Toronto iSchool's Library and Information Science (LIS) concentration. Students who take INF1300 explore the major theories, history, and current issues of the field of library science as both an academic discipline and a real-world job. The course instructor, Dr. Jenna Hartel, provides an overview of LIS through readings, lectures, guest speakers, and assignments. The major assignment of the Fall 2015 class was the Visual Research Project (VRP), which was inspired by Dr. Hartel's iSquare Research Program.
The VRP gave students an opportunity to conduct original research into one of three major concepts of LIS - information, Internet or librarian - through a visual data gathering method known as the draw-and-write technique. In the draw-and-write technique research subjects are asked to draw the concept that is the subject of the study, and then to explain their drawing in a short written statement. Using scripts to instruct participants on the data gathering activity, INF1300 student-researchers collected original drawings, known respectively as iSquares, netSquares, or libSquares, from their friends and family. Once collected, the squares were given identification numbers and the visual and textual data was digitized and uploaded to a shared Google Drive folder.
Altogether, the student-researchers created a significant new visual data set comprised of 587 drawings: 180 drawings of information, 119 of internet, and 288 of librarian (a sample of each is shown below). Then, participants in the course used a mixture of analytical techniques to interpret the visual data. All projects were required to articulate links between the concept, the visual data and the scholarly literature. For many students the VRP was an entirely new experience; they had never conducted original research or analyzed images before.
Results from the project could be presented in one of two formats: a traditional paper or an arts-informed deliverable. The idea of an arts-informed deliverable originated in Dr. Hartel's belief that the data set could engaged and expressed artistically. In total, 39 students submitted a paper that interpreted the central concept visually; the papers discussed links between the images and well-known theories in LIS, such as Buckland's "Information-as-Thing" or Kuhlthau's "Information Search Process." 59 students created an arts-informed deliverable with an accompanying artist's statement. The artworks employed a multitude of materials and forms of expression, including oil paintings, watercolors, illustrations, graphic novels, playing cards, sculptures, dance, video, board games, an Instagram account, poems, shorts stories, and other genres. A selection of the artworks appears below and a larger exhibition will be mounted in the University of Toronto’s Robarts Library in March/April of 2016. A committee has been formed among the students to determine a long-term data management and preservation solution for the 587 original drawings, with the support of the University of Toronto’s Information Technology Services.
The VRP gave students an opportunity to conduct original research into one of three major concepts of LIS - information, Internet or librarian - through a visual data gathering method known as the draw-and-write technique. In the draw-and-write technique research subjects are asked to draw the concept that is the subject of the study, and then to explain their drawing in a short written statement. Using scripts to instruct participants on the data gathering activity, INF1300 student-researchers collected original drawings, known respectively as iSquares, netSquares, or libSquares, from their friends and family. Once collected, the squares were given identification numbers and the visual and textual data was digitized and uploaded to a shared Google Drive folder.
Altogether, the student-researchers created a significant new visual data set comprised of 587 drawings: 180 drawings of information, 119 of internet, and 288 of librarian (a sample of each is shown below). Then, participants in the course used a mixture of analytical techniques to interpret the visual data. All projects were required to articulate links between the concept, the visual data and the scholarly literature. For many students the VRP was an entirely new experience; they had never conducted original research or analyzed images before.
Results from the project could be presented in one of two formats: a traditional paper or an arts-informed deliverable. The idea of an arts-informed deliverable originated in Dr. Hartel's belief that the data set could engaged and expressed artistically. In total, 39 students submitted a paper that interpreted the central concept visually; the papers discussed links between the images and well-known theories in LIS, such as Buckland's "Information-as-Thing" or Kuhlthau's "Information Search Process." 59 students created an arts-informed deliverable with an accompanying artist's statement. The artworks employed a multitude of materials and forms of expression, including oil paintings, watercolors, illustrations, graphic novels, playing cards, sculptures, dance, video, board games, an Instagram account, poems, shorts stories, and other genres. A selection of the artworks appears below and a larger exhibition will be mounted in the University of Toronto’s Robarts Library in March/April of 2016. A committee has been formed among the students to determine a long-term data management and preservation solution for the 587 original drawings, with the support of the University of Toronto’s Information Technology Services.
acknowledgements
All students of INF1300: Foundations of Library and Information Science (Fall, 2015) are recognized and applauded for their work on the Visual Research Project, and for performing superbly as visual researchers, writers, and artists. A complete list of participants appears at the end of this page. The VRP was designed and taught by Dr. Jenna Hartel, Christie Oh (Research Project Manager), and Rebecca Noone (Artist-in-Residence) of the iSquare Team. This webpage was curated by Kara Isozaki, a Research Assistant on the iSquare Team, and an INF1300 student, as well. Thanks to iSchool Dean Seamus Ross for his support throughout the semester.
A sample of the visual data
isquares
netsquares
libsquares
A sample of the deliverables
The “Information Monster Zine”— although the title might seem ominous—offers a positive message about information, inspired by the optimism of the isquares: information can be tamed, and can frame the world in helpful ways and contribute to our life pleasures.
By Rotem Anna Diamant
Full artist statement
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"A Critical Examination of Visual Research Data Using M. Buckland’s 'Information as Thing'"
By Shevaun Ruby |
Information Age begins with the seemingly insignificant action of a flick of a light switch, whereby the individual is opened to a world of possibility through technology, imagination and society. By Jodie Church Full artist statement |
"The Information Is...Machine" is an interactive visual aid that allows individuals to create their own combination of images and text taken from the iSquares to represent what information means to them.
By Jaron Fitch
Full artist statement
The artist related the concepts of socio-cognitive metatheory with the images he observed in the iSquares. The poem reads as an anecdote of his immersive experience engaging with the data set. He aimed to create a piece where his ephemeral abstract perceptions of the visual data could be tethered to the theory.
By Jonathan Pineda
Full artist statement
Using Buckland’s theory of information as thing, process, and knowledge, the artist categorized the images and symbols from iSquare drawings and formed a network around them using the accompanying text. These metaphorical relationships are presented in a knowledge framework to reflect the individual cognitive processes required for making information meaningful.
By Julia De Ruyter
Full artist statement
By Julia De Ruyter
Full artist statement
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In this discursive montage three students discuss what they think information might be, while chatter continues on in the background to represent the never-ending social and dialogic nature of constructionism. By Karl Nicolas Full artist statement |
The artist observed a common theme among the iSquares: information overload. It is represented as drawings of bodies interacting with an abundance of information. Thus, the artist chose to convey her findings using her own body in the form of a dance/movement piece. (Song: Bodyache by Purity Ring) By Kate Cattell-Daniels Full artist statement |
"Chasing Footnotes: An LIS Deliverable" is a Wonderland-esque (or Internetland) narrative of a student who begins with a negative outlook on their researching task but it gradually becomes easier and more enjoyable.
By Anna Maria Kawecka
Full artist statement
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Using a berrypicking technique, the artist searched for Instragram posts tagged with #TheInternet (and other hashtags) then linked them to posts of netSquares on her own @NetSquares account. The artist assumed the roles of researcher (following trails of visual data through the web), ethnographer (participating in an online community), and curator (selecting images related to the data set). By Lindsay Harker Full artist statement |
"Internet as String" is a visual representation of the artist's argument that web-based information does not simply operate on a nebulous, invisible plane or within a vacuum; it shapes, and is shaped by, our societies and cultures. By Katherine Salgo Full artist statement |
"Yuri: The Lonely Wanderings and Self-discovery Mission of the Thing We Know as 'The Internet'" is a coming-of-age graphic novel featuring an anthropomorphized version of the internet who sets off to discover its identity. The artist aims to establish and reflect on a clear and informative definition of the internet and how it is perceived by society.
By Tessie Riggs
Full artist statement
"Dewey: For the High Fashion Librarian" is a satirical magazine cover that features a composite image of a librarian made up of the most common stereotypical elements that appeared in the libSquare data set. By Carly Bedford Full artist statement |
"The Modern Librarian" sculpture features three pairs of glasses. Each illustrates an activity that, based on the artist's findings, librarians are recently seen to represent: shushing, shelving, and using a computer. By Ronit Barenboim Full artist statement |
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The "Old Maid: Librarian Edition" playing cards display the diversity of librarian representations the artist discovered in her analysis of the data set. It also conveys how the grumpy old maid librarian stereotype is slowly disappearing from public perception (there is only one old maid card in the deck).
By Laura Cree
Full artist statement
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“I Am a Librarian” draws inspiration from a Molson Canadian beer commercial that used Canadian stereotypes to address, correct, and educate the international community. Similarly, by allowing those outside of the librarian community the opportunity to learn about the many roles librarians occupy, the artist argues that society would be more willing and able to look beyond the stereotype. By Vanessa Miraples Full artist statement |
Using Pinterest "boards" the artist created an online collage that pokes fun at the stereotypical image of a librarian that appeared in the libSquares. Her fictional character of “Agnes Smythe”, a cliché, non-computer savvy librarian, contradicts the role of a librarian in today’s landscape where there is a movement away from books to computers, from knowledge to data.
By Cathleen Keenan
Full artist statement
InF1300 Student-researchers
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Adamczyk, Alicja
Adams, Heather Agbaje, Folarin Ahmad, Vicky Anderson, Bronwyn Bach, Raymond Bardach, Philip Barenboim, Ronit Bedford, Carly Bellinger, Samantha Cadenas, Carolina Capobianco, Mary-Grace Cattell-Daniels, Kate Chan, Michelle Chiang, Danielle Chuquisana Mora, Ena Church, Jodie Clarke, Alison Cree, Laura Cruz, Maya |
De Ruyter, Julia
Diamant, Rotem Diaz, Nancy Elmsley, Samantha Extance, Julia Fellin, Mark Ferrell, Peter Fitch, Jaron Frauley-Elson, Nora Friesen, Erica Gao, Frances Georgiou, Jennifer Gordon, Natalie Graves, Benjamin Gray, Mikaela Gurbin, Gail Gutman, Sari Handley-Girard, Lucie Harangozo, Tyler Harding, Thomas |
Harker, Lindsay
Herron, Emily Hila, Angjelin Holmes, Kathryn Iqbal, Fareh Isozaki, Kara Jerry, Maeghan Karbach, Olena Kawecka, Anna Keenan, Cathleen Kidd, Brandon Kit, Olena Klein, Sara Lafrance, Margot Laidlaw, Keltie Lam, Oi-Ling Likarevic, Nikolina Lochtefeld, Abigail Lovsin, Darcye Lu, Jenny |
Marin, Andreea
Mason, David Miraples, Vanessa Misquith, Chelsea Monkman, Hannah Munoz Gomez, Antonio Nandkissore, Shauna Naydenova, Teodora Nicolas, Karl Norton-Bell, Alice O'Brien, Mandy Pallotta, Eleni Peat, Annia Pegg, Stephanie Peters, Carmen Pineda, Jonathan Riggs, Tessie Rosebrugh, Lesley Ruby, Shevaun Ruiz, Maria |
Rusnell, Eden
Salgo, Katherine Schoner-Saunders, Lisl Severino, Christina Smidstra, Nicholas Sonoc, Cvijeta Stafford, Thalia Stanton-Hagan, Al Stoddart, Katelyn Terefenko, Cathy Tsang, Althea Van Wagner, Danielle Walker, Caroline Watson, Deanna Whyte, Jessica Wilson, Mark Wood, Jordan |