I am a firm believer in getting your title right before getting down to business and actually writing your text. The title (and subtitle) will normally help restrain my thoughts to the core subject matter when I am writing. The title of my thesis proposal (The Evolving Ecology of the Book) was an important step for me and came about after a first (informal) draft and a couple of e-mail exchanges with my (future) supervisor…
The title came naturally, as I was exploring and skimming many articles on the topic of “institutional ecology” and “textual practices”… but some of you may recognize this from somewhere else… While this title was rooted in my preliminary research, I am pretty sure that it was also in the back of my mind for a little while. And so, I’d like to give credit where credit is due! In early June, I attended Bookcamp TO, a marvelous event that took place at the iSchool, and was floored by the great conversation happening at a panel led by Stephanie Troeth and Carlos A. Scolari… aptly named “The Evolving Ecology of the Book”. While the discussion was somewhat agitated and lively (to say the least), it really got to the core of the problematic for future book interfaces by looking at previous types of interface (starting from the clay tablet). This image pretty much sums up the discussion.
This title is still a work in progress, in my opinion… and here are a few reasons why:
- the term “ecology” might need to be plural: from what I see so far, there are multiple environments surrounding the “book”, environments that have their own ecology
- the term “book” seems to be less and less suited for my thesis: I think the “book” is too precise a term for this project, not only in terms of format (I will probably be exploring academic journals in the course of my research), but also in terms of concept. I am tempted to replace the term “book” with “text” in order to englobe all formats. However, the word “text” seems to dissociate the container from the content…. so… I guess I need something in between! Something less precise than a “book” but that encompasses both the container and the content.
I guess this is why I feel the need to have a very wordy subtitle: “Understanding the infrastructure of emergent textual practices and their implications for future information spaces”… which pretty much sums up the first few paragraphs of my proposal.
What do you think of the words “book” and “text”? What’s would be a word that’s in between?
Posted in Thesis.
Tagged with definition, meta, title.
By Marie-Eve
– August 2, 2009
If there is one lesson that I remember from art school, it is to always “document your process”… Back in my design student days, this meant to take pictures of every step of a physical design, or collect and scan all of your sketches for future presentation in front of the class for design crits. Now… my academic career may be far from the applied arts (well… maybe not, but that’s for another post), but I do see the value in documenting my research process, both for feedback from my peers and general audience, but also for myself, as a way putting my thought down on paper in order to clarify them and make sense of the emerging concepts uncovered in data collection and literature… and I guess I’m taking a cue from what my friend Hugh McGuire has to say on this topic :)
and so, here’s a short introduction to two of my main projects which I will be documenting on here.
The Visual Journal
The Visual Journal first started out as an assignment from the summer pro-seminar I attended at the University of Toronto: the Visual Thinking Series, from the Knowledge Media Design Collaborative Program. The main objective of this project is to rethink the academic journal from a visual-spatial viewpoint and within the context of the affordances of the web. While current academic journals may be more text-based, the Visual Journal attempts to use visual language as its primary mode of communication for scientific/academic findings.
The Visual Journal is currently an independent project led by Alison Benjamin (iSchool), Peter Coppin (iSchool), Monica Resendes (OISE) and I. With a first prototype under our belt, we are hoping to push the project further while still tying it to the Knowledge Media Design community where it first emerged.
The Evolving Ecology of the Book
Understanding the infrastructure of emergent textual practices and their implications for future information spaces (Proposed Master’s Thesis)
Following a series of coincidences and projects related to books and textual practices (including the Visual Journal), I have recently decided to suck it up and pursue the thesis option. This project is currently in its infancy (I need to round off my official proposal in the next coming weeks for full approval by my supervisor and the iSchool), but is still taking up most of my waking time these days. The current objective of this project is to understand the (possible) shift in everyday textual practices (definition of this in an upcoming post) due to the rise of digital media. While this last statement may seem to target the “reader” as my main focal point, my research will hopefully be broader and approach the theme of the “book” from an ecological perspective (e.g. what are the textual practices not only of the “readers” but of the authors, proofreaders, editors, publishers, etc…)
And finally… here’s what I expect from this blog
- please don’t be shy to call me out on some of my (potentially really bad) ideas… I need all the feedback I can get
- speaking of feedback… of course I am hoping that some of my colleagues will take part in the discussion, but I’m mostly really hoping that anyone out there (i.e. not necessarily from the academic world) who has an opinion/idea/comment will speak their mind and comment on my posts!
- you can expect a mix of rants, general rambling, academic writing and fuzzy ideas in need of feedback
alright! I got a couple of posts brewing in my head… gotta go and tend to it!
Posted in Ramblings, Thesis, Visual Journal.
By Marie-Eve
– July 25, 2009
