Yes, it’s been a long time since I posted, but I have a good excuse. I recently completed and defended my dissertation. So I have been writing about the visual forest, just not in blog format.\u00c2\u00a0 Quite the opposite. But now that the final document has been reviewed, revised and accepted (submitted on Leap Day), I hope to be contributing posts more regularly. More pictures, more frequently.<\/p>\n
For those that are curious, I received my PhD in Information Science and Technology from the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. My dissertation is entitled “Image-Enabled Discourse: Investigating the Creation of Visual Information as Communicative Practice.” The abstract is below and pdf of the full, final version is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n ABSTRACT.<\/strong> Anyone who has clarified a\u00c2\u00a0thought or prompted a response during a conversation\u00c2\u00a0by drawing a picture has exploited the potential of image\u00c2\u00a0making as an\u00c2\u00a0interactive tool for conveying information. Images are increasingly\u00c2\u00a0ubiquitous in daily communication, in large part due to advances in\u00c2\u00a0visually enabled information and communication technologies (ICT), such as\u00c2\u00a0information visualization applications, image\u00c2\u00a0retrieval systems and\u00c2\u00a0visually enabled collaborative work tools. Human\u00c2\u00a0abilities to\u00c2\u00a0use images to communicate are however far more sophisticated and nuanced\u00c2\u00a0than these technologies currently support. In order to learn more about the practice of\u00c2\u00a0image making as a specialized form of information and communication behavior, this study examined face-to-face\u00c2\u00a0conversations involving the creation of ad hoc visualizations\u00c2\u00a0(i.e.,\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153napkin drawings\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). A model of image-enabled discourse is introduced, which positions image making as a specialized form of communicative practice. Multimodal analysis of video-recorded conversations focused on identifying image-enabled\u00c2\u00a0communicative activities in terms of interactional sociolinguistic concepts of conversational\u00c2\u00a0involvement and coordination, specifically framing, footing and stance. The study shows that when drawing occurs in the context of an ongoing dialogue, the\u00c2\u00a0activity of visual representation performs key\u00c2\u00a0communicative tasks. Visualization is a form of social interaction that contributes to the maintenance of conversational involvement in ways\u00c2\u00a0that are not often\u00c2\u00a0evident in the image\u00c2\u00a0artifact.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, drawing\u00c2\u00a0enables us to coordinate\u00c2\u00a0with each other, to introduce alternative perspectives into a conversation\u00c2\u00a0and even to\u00c2\u00a0temporarily suspend the primary thread of a discussion in\u00c2\u00a0order to explore a tangential thought. The study compares attributes of the image artifact with those of the activity of image making, described as a series of contrasting affordances. Visual\u00c2\u00a0information in complex\u00c2\u00a0systems is generally represented and managed based on the affordances of the artifact, neglecting to\u00c2\u00a0account for\u00c2\u00a0all that is communicated through the situated action of creating.\u00c2\u00a0These finding have\u00c2\u00a0heuristic and best-practice\u00c2\u00a0implications for a range of areas related to the\u00c2\u00a0design and evaluation of virtual collaboration environments,\u00c2\u00a0visual information\u00c2\u00a0extraction and retrieval systems, and data visualization tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yes, it’s been a long time since I posted, but I have a good excuse. I recently completed and defended my dissertation. So I have been writing about the visual forest, just not in blog format.\u00c2\u00a0 Quite the opposite. But … Continue reading