artist's statement by jonathan pineda
The poem that I wrote is fitted on two computer screens, drawn by participants (INF110, INF113). I felt that this image was appropriate as it reflects my interaction with the iSquares as documents through my computer screen, as well as how the ideas of my poem are drawn (pun) directly from the iSquare drawings.
In my poem, I tried to relate the concepts of socio-cognitive metatheory with the images I observed in the iSquares. The poem reads as an anecdote of my immersive experience engaging with the data set. I aimed to create a piece where my ephemeral abstract perceptions of the visual data could be tethered to the theory. I give a shout out to Hartel’s snowman as (personally,) my first and most clearly understood explanation of socio-cognitive theory. I kept the concepts of collectives, culture, and information practices and artifacts in mind when writing, and tried to make the connection explicit at times. I noted that there were both social (images of people interacting with each other and technology) and documentary (books, images and text on computer) trends. The trends were simultaneously unique among participants while forming a collective, cultural understanding of information that is aligned with the theory.
With Bates’ overview on socio-cognitive theory in mind, I describe the visual data as treasures in the poem. I do so because of my appreciation for the iSquare’s power to reveal our society’s otherwise invisible internalized signs and symbols of information.
In the poem, I look at the visual data from both micro and macro perspectives. I describe the data as a presentation and result of nearly four thousand years of unique thought; the sum of the ages of our participants. I incorporate some information science metaphors (snowman, Bates’ “below the water line”), word play (“terrains of thought” as both a dualism of the physical and intangible, as well as reference to drawings of scenery – INF020, 021, 031), alliteration, and simile as I navigate through the sea of drawings.
In my poem, I tried to relate the concepts of socio-cognitive metatheory with the images I observed in the iSquares. The poem reads as an anecdote of my immersive experience engaging with the data set. I aimed to create a piece where my ephemeral abstract perceptions of the visual data could be tethered to the theory. I give a shout out to Hartel’s snowman as (personally,) my first and most clearly understood explanation of socio-cognitive theory. I kept the concepts of collectives, culture, and information practices and artifacts in mind when writing, and tried to make the connection explicit at times. I noted that there were both social (images of people interacting with each other and technology) and documentary (books, images and text on computer) trends. The trends were simultaneously unique among participants while forming a collective, cultural understanding of information that is aligned with the theory.
With Bates’ overview on socio-cognitive theory in mind, I describe the visual data as treasures in the poem. I do so because of my appreciation for the iSquare’s power to reveal our society’s otherwise invisible internalized signs and symbols of information.
In the poem, I look at the visual data from both micro and macro perspectives. I describe the data as a presentation and result of nearly four thousand years of unique thought; the sum of the ages of our participants. I incorporate some information science metaphors (snowman, Bates’ “below the water line”), word play (“terrains of thought” as both a dualism of the physical and intangible, as well as reference to drawings of scenery – INF020, 021, 031), alliteration, and simile as I navigate through the sea of drawings.