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October 29, 2014 at noon on The Library Cafe: http://library-cafe.org

Scholar, artist, printer, and visual theorist Johanna Drucker, Breslauer
Professor of Bibliographical Studies at the Graduate School of Education
and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles,
discusses her book Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production,
(Harvard 2014).

"In our current screen-saturated culture, we take in more information
through visual means than at any point in history. The computers and smart
phones that constantly flood us with images do more than simply convey
information. They structure our relationship to information through
graphical formats. Learning to interpret how visual forms not only present
but produce knowledge, says Johanna Drucker, has become an essential
contemporary skill."

 "Graphesis provides a descriptive critical language for the analysis of
graphical knowledge. In an interdisciplinary study fusing digital
humanities with media studies and graphic design history, Drucker outlines
the principles by which visual formats organize meaningful content. Among
the most significant of these formats is the graphical user interface
(GUI)—the dominant feature of the screens of nearly all consumer electronic
devices. Because so much of our personal and professional lives is mediated
through visual interfaces, it is important to start thinking critically
about how they shape knowledge, our behavior, and even our identity."

"Information graphics bear tell-tale signs of the disciplines in which they
originated: statistics, business, and the empirical sciences. Drucker makes
the case for studying visuality from a humanistic perspective, exploring
how graphic languages can serve fields where qualitative judgments take
priority over quantitative statements of fact. Graphesis offers a new
epistemology of the ways we process information, embracing the full
potential of visual forms and formats of knowledge production."


-- 
Thomas E. Hill
Art Librarian,
Vassar College
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845.437.5791


On view through December, 2014:
*Tongues in Trees: Xylography and the Uses of Adversity
<http://artlibrary.vassar.edu/images/catalogue.pdf>*


http://artlibrary.vassar.edu
http://library-cafe.org
VC Art Library on Facebook: http://facebook.com/VassarArtLibrary
T. Hill Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ThomasEHill


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