Journal article
Understanding and Information in the Work of Visual Artists
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v 71(6), pp 685-695
01 Jun 2020
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
To better account for information behavior in everyday life, the field must more fully explore information phenomena in the lifeworld, that is, information experience. This article shows that one way to do this is through the concept of understanding. Visual art is identified as an illuminating domain for an initial foray into such research. This article presents findings from a phenomenology-of-practice study of the information behavior of visual artists. Seven local artists documented their experiences creating self-portraits, and semistructured follow-up interviews were conducted. The findings show how these participants built understanding with information in their work of creating individual self-portraits. These understandings fall into two categories: of the self and of the artistic process. Many forms of information, traditional and novel, contribute to these understandings; examples of the latter include memories, the lived environment, profound experiences, and online browsing. These findings extend the literature on artists' information behavior, connect everyday information behavior to information experience, and illustrate a method for studying understanding empirically in information science. The article closes by discussing the meaning of these findings for the future of information science, suggesting that the kinds of information employed by artists might be recognized and appreciated more widely throughout society.
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Details
- Title
- Understanding and Information in the Work of Visual Artists
- Creators
- Tim Gorichanaz - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, v 71(6), pp 685-695
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 11
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Information Science
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000477112400001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85069730515
- Other Identifier
- 991019167708504721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Computer Science, Information Systems
- Information Science & Library Science