artist's statement by rotem anna diamant
The Information Monster Zine
I am intrigued by how zines as an anti-elitist creative DIY genre elicit self-expression and provoke layers of narration and meaning through a participatory information building process between reader and author. Ideas about information have shifted through time, from the medieval view of information as objective in a static world created by God, to the 19th century positivism (Paul Otlet’s) view of objective information rooted in indisputable scientific and intellectual grounding, as sacred rules of the world that must be protected—and now to the more modern view of information as something that can be subjective, fluid, shifting with time and dependent on our unique experiences, ideologies, and fantasies and of the world. What better form to capture the subjectivity of information and experience than the zine? Most of the iSquare participants chose to focus on positive qualities of “information”, particularly how it connects us to each other and the world through enabling language and communication and the transferring and sharing of ideas; what better form to capture this than the zine that can be made by anyone?
My zine is “information monster” themed because information, like a monster, is difficult to tame and can appear frightening. The delicate “red thread” of information weaves throughout the zine, hinting at the way information is tied to structural elements and also hinting at the danger of refusing to acknowledge the instability and subjectivity of “knowledge”. I wondered why most participants neglected to produce any frightening qualities of information, like alienation and over-stimulation for example, caused by Facebook or the Internet. The abundance of blank faces in participants’ drawings immediately captured my attention. I decided to explore certain ideas of “information” that these blank faces provoked, and began to analyze them through several information “metatheories” found in Marcia Bates’ “An Introduction to Theories, Metatheories, and Models.” I also use Michael K. Buckland’s “multi-type” approach to information as: process, knowledge, and “thing”. I use my interpretation of the blank face and other themes in the iSquares as a way to work within the introspective, personal, and autonomous art form of the zine that combines the scrapbook, diary, and comic in order to deconstruct and reconstruct personal and cultural archives of “information”. I use panels roughly the same size as the iSquares to draw attention to how I am filtering the information on the iSquares through my imagination and reshaping the information to create a new narrative. 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.
My zine is “information monster” themed because information, like a monster, is difficult to tame and can appear frightening. The delicate “red thread” of information weaves throughout the zine, hinting at the way information is tied to structural elements and also hinting at the danger of refusing to acknowledge the instability and subjectivity of “knowledge”. I wondered why most participants neglected to produce any frightening qualities of information, like alienation and over-stimulation for example, caused by Facebook or the Internet. The abundance of blank faces in participants’ drawings immediately captured my attention. I decided to explore certain ideas of “information” that these blank faces provoked, and began to analyze them through several information “metatheories” found in Marcia Bates’ “An Introduction to Theories, Metatheories, and Models.” I also use Michael K. Buckland’s “multi-type” approach to information as: process, knowledge, and “thing”. I use my interpretation of the blank face and other themes in the iSquares as a way to work within the introspective, personal, and autonomous art form of the zine that combines the scrapbook, diary, and comic in order to deconstruct and reconstruct personal and cultural archives of “information”. I use panels roughly the same size as the iSquares to draw attention to how I am filtering the information on the iSquares through my imagination and reshaping the information to create a new narrative. 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.
Works Cited
Bates, Marcia J. "The Invisible Substrate of Information Science." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50.12 (1999): 1043-50. ProQuest. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
Bates, Marcia J. “An Introduction to Theories, Metatheories, and Models.” Theories of Information Behavior. Ed. Karen E. Fisher, Sanda Erdelez, and Lynne McKechnie. Medford, N.J: Published for the American Society for Information Science and Technology by Information Today, 2005. 1-24. Print.
Buckland, Michael K. "Information as Thing." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42.5 (1991): 351. ProQuest. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: [the Invisible Art]. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.
Bates, Marcia J. “An Introduction to Theories, Metatheories, and Models.” Theories of Information Behavior. Ed. Karen E. Fisher, Sanda Erdelez, and Lynne McKechnie. Medford, N.J: Published for the American Society for Information Science and Technology by Information Today, 2005. 1-24. Print.
Buckland, Michael K. "Information as Thing." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42.5 (1991): 351. ProQuest. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: [the Invisible Art]. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.