Johanna Drucker,
Robertson Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia

Title: "Graphic Conventions: Visualizing Knowledge and Subjectivity"

The use of visualization for presenting quantifiable information is a familiar part of empirical science and statistical analysis. The development of visualization tools for qualitative analysis in the interpretation of humanities materials is far less developed or familiar. The basic recognition of subjectivity as a fundamental aspect of humanities knowledge introduces yet a further consideration if graphical means of producing and interpreting knowledge are to be conventionalized for a community of users.

This talk reviews some of the historical models and examples of graphical conventions, and also addresses conceptual underpinnings and assumptions about their formal organization and application.

Biography

Johanna Drucker is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and English at the University of Virginia. She has a BFA in Printing, an MA in Visual Studies, and a PhD in Ecriture: The History and theory of writing as the visual representation of language (UC Berkeley). She has written and lectured widely on topics related to visual knowledge production, contemporary and modern art, typography and the history of the book and writing, and digital aesthetics. She was a founding member of the Speculative Computing Lab at the University of Virginia and has been central to the development of various projects: Ivanhoe, Temporal Modelling, and ArtistsBooksOnline.