Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Document Productivity Cycle (Study Case Of Samudera Raksa Ship Museum), Ciwuk Musiana Yudhawasthi, Lydia Christiani

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The study aims to discuss document productivity in the case of the Samudera Raksa Ship Museum. To answer this, the researchers made a productivity document study based on (1) Blasius Sudarsono's axiom, which states that "In the beginning, it was the human will to express what he thought and/or felt;" (2) Sudarsono's thoughts regarding documents as processes and products; (3) Lund’s concept of document creation; (4) Sabine Roux's thoughts on the rhizome concept in the document productivity process; and (5) the concept of museum communication by Yudhawasthi. Based on these theoretical frameworks, an analysis of the document productivity in the …

Powerful Particulars As “Autodocuments” In Documentality, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The purpose of this short paper is to sketch the problem of whether documentality, in the sense of the appearance of evidence, must always take the form of a type-token relationship. In contrast to a type-token epistemology common in the Library and Information Science tradition, the paper argues that there is precedence for a theory of documentality that views evidentiality as a product of the powers of particulars to make themselves present. To make this argument, it appeals to Robert Pagès theory of documents and, over a half century later, Bernd Frohmann’s proposal for a philosophy of information, “Documentality.” Such …

Documents And The Malady Of Truth, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article discusses documents, knowledge, and truth through a conceptual examination and through an examination of Flaubert's 19th century novel Madame Bovary. It argues that the main characters of Madame Bovary deceive themselves by believing that the contents of the fictional and medical texts they read convey truth. In contrast, the article argues that modern knowledge is constituted by documentary evidence operating in knowledge networks and processes where the result of such operations is what can be claimed to be true about the world through such processes. The representational malady that Madame and Doctor Bovary suffer in the novel was …

“Living Document”: From Documents To Documentality, From Mimesis To Performative Indexicality, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In this article, in distinction to documentation as an epistemic understanding of documents, I will discuss the epistemology of documentality as an indexical theory of documental functions, which I will develop through Bruno Latour’s notion of information. This notion of indexicality is different than Suzanne Briet’s notion of indexicality (which I have discussed elsewhere (Briet, 2006)).

I will begin this paper with an historical problem that illustrates the issues of viewing documents as content representation. This is the problem identified by Vincent Debaene (Debaene, 2014) in early and mid-twentieth century French field anthropology of the “two book” phenomenon, which attempted …

Three Monstrosities Of Information, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article discusses three of my books and the types of information monstrosities they present.

Writing Documentarity, Arthur Perret

Proceedings from the Document Academy

European pioneers of documentation have inspired us to adopt a functional approach to documents. This has led to works on documentality, which is related to the agency and use of documents, and now on documentarity. We define documentarity as a “quantifiable quality”: not what is a document, but how something can seem documentary. This requires input from writing theories and the study of markup (architext, scripturation) and a comparison between interfaces and the underlying processes (documentarisation, editorialisation).

Foregrounding Documentation Within Metaliteracy, Marc Kosciejew

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Documentation plays a central role in metaliteracy. When individuals engage in metaliterate practices of creating, sharing, and assessing information, they are, in fact, engaging in practices with documents. Yet, while the goals and objectives of metaliteracy implicitly acknowledge documentation, they do not explicitly emphasize the fundamental roles played by it in helping facilitate and enable various metaliterate practices. This article aims to make these roles explicit.

By foregrounding documentation – specifically documents and their associated practices – within metaliteracy, this article argues for the recognition of the fundamental roles played by documents and their associated practices within metaliterate practices and …

The Ontology Of Documents, Revisited, Jonathan Furner

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Three contributions are made to understanding the nature of documents. A survey of definitions of "document" from the last century shows that those definitions which most accurately reflect the ways in which the term "document" is used in practice are typically compound definitions, consisting of two or three elements that each refer to a different function of documents: medium, message, and meaning. Locating documents in E. J. Lowe's four-category ontology results in consideration of documents as universals rather than as particulars. Analysis of B. Smith's theory of document acts suggest that all documents, not just the ones that are involved …

The Architext Of Biblion: Digital Echoes Of Paul Otlet, Arthur Perret

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Paul Otlet's 1934 Traité de documentation is a landmark publication, but its considerable scope, complex structure and sheer volume make it a particularly challenging resource to use. This paper reports on an experiment in which visual methods and lexicometry are used to understand how the Traité is organized and what it is about. We describe the underlying logic of the experiment using the concepts of biblion and architext, then process the table of contents and full text of the book with several visualization methods, discussing their output. This allows us to confirm and expand on previous qualitative appraisal of the …

Documents And Moral Knowledge: Art In Yellowstone National Park, Tim Gorichanaz

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Documents have traditionally been conceptualized as representations of reality. Recently, scholars have been exploring how documents can also construct reality. In this paper, I follow this thread, discussing how documents can supply moral knowledge, showing what people ought to value in the world, thereby guiding action. Specifically, I discuss two works of art depicting Yellowstone National Park: a painting by Thomas Moran, done in the 19th century; and a photograph by Michael Nichols, from the 21st. Both of these works respond to a dualism in the human relationship to the wilderness, dating back at least to the European colonization of …

A Documentary-Material Approach For Performance, Marc Kosciejew

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article begins a conceptual discussion about the relationship between documentation, performance, and materiality. It argues that a documentary approach helps show the roles played by documents and practices with them in performance’s materialization and constitution. It presents the start of a documentary approach for analyzing performance by discussing some ways in which documentation helps provide a material basis for performance beyond its enactment whilst simultaneously materializing and constituting it in and for other diverse contexts.

Rethinking The Potential Of Documentation Of Culture As A Data Gathering Practice, Tomasz Umerle

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In this article, I examine the documentation of culture (DoC). This is the practice of gathering and producing the information and data relevant to intangible cultural phenomena. DoC is generally practiced by teams of documentalists generally outside GLAM institutions (i.e., galleries, libraries, archives and museums). As such, it differs from the preservation and description of concrete objects of cultural heritage done within those institutions. I examine how DoC finds it increasingly difficult to clearly define and communicate its role: a) in relation to LIS; b) to the broader academic community; and c) in digital age of information overload. In this …

“Windows” Of Time, Part Ii: Documenting Temporal And Embodied Epistemology In Musicians, Lynnsey K. Weissenberger

Proceedings from the Document Academy

As an extension to the earlier paper “Windows” of Time: Memory, Metaphor, and Storytelling as Documents, this paper examines how those documents both inform and are informed by temporal epistemology and embodied knowledge. They serve to document both temporal and embodied epistemology in the ongoing process of musical knowledge building, in music performance, as well as in teaching and transmission contexts. To illustrate in greater depth how these documents are situated between temporal and embodied knowledge, Irish traditional music examples are drawn from five renowned musicians as a kind of case study. A model representing the documents’ situation and …

Documentation, Information And The Animal Connection, Geir Grenersen

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The article elaborates on the informational relationship between nature, animals and humans. In traditional societies, nature and animals are rich sources of information and documentation, as seen in Sámi reindeer husbandry. Today, research on animal behaviour has shown that animals are capable of sophisticated communication with humans. In the field of documentation and information studies, Marcia Bates has made a significant contribution to this perspective. The article presents some of her concepts, and discusses their potential use in empirical research on documentation in the Sámi society.

From Fief To Clan: Boisot’S Information Space Model As A Documentary Theory For Cultural And Institutional Analysis, Lin Wang, Michael Buckland

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Max Boisot (1943-2011) and his Information Space (I-Space) model are introduced. The I-Space model characterized information flow on three dimensions (codification, abstraction, and diffusion). It can be seen as a document-based model. Boisot and colleagues identifies four types of institutional information practices (bureaucracies, markets, fiefs, and clans). Chinese economic reform in the 1980s is used as a case-study to demonstrate how document configuration and infrastructure is associated with cultural and institutional change. This echoes Suzanne Briet's assertion that documentation is a cultural technique.

A Duty To Document, Marc Kosciejew

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Access to information is a bedrock principle of contemporary democratic governments and their public agencies and entities. Access to information depends upon these public institutions to document their activities and decisions. When public institutions do not document their activities and decisions, citizens’ right of access is ultimately denied. Public accountability and trust, in addition to institutional memory and the historical record, are undermined without the creation of appropriate records. Establishing and enforcing a duty to document helps promote accountability, openness, transparency, good governance, and public trust in public institutions. A duty to document should therefore be a fundamental component of …

Jungles, Rabbit Holes, And Wonderlands: Comparing Conceptions Of Museality And Document, Kiersten F. Latham

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Following from the Document Academy 2012 presentation of a similar name, this article commits to paper the beginnings of an exploration between the concepts around document (from neo-documentation studies) and museality (from museum studies). It will serve as an initial mechanism for the exploration into the history, use, and comparative usefulness of the terms in order to blaze a path towards organizing their relationship and potential use in practice. The article is a purposefully open-ended exploration that encourages feedback and suggestions.

A Neo-Documentalist Lens For Exploring The Premises Of Disciplinary Knowledge Making, Lisa Börjesson, Nicolo Dell'unto, Isto Huvila, Carolina Larsson, Daniel Löwenborg, Bodil Petersson, Per Stenborg

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article applies a neo-documentalist approach to explore disciplinary documentation and document practices, assumed to condition disciplinary knowledge-making. The aim is to show how conceptions and materialities of what counts as documentation and documents are intertwined with changing and persisting disciplinary and sub-disciplinary practices of producing information and knowledge, of knowing, and informing. A collective, multivocal autoethnographic method is used to obtain vignettes from five areas of activity in or related to archaeology. The ongoing digitization of archaeological investigation and documentation methods, and of archaeological materials, is used as a shared departure point in the vignettes, explaining how digitization influences …

How It All Started: 1996, The First Year Of Dokvit, Niels W. Lund

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article describes in detail the first year of the Documentation Studies (Dokvit) program in Tromsø (1996) in attempt to offer an understanding of how Dokvit was part of the neo-documentation movement that began in the mid-90s with the rediscovery of Suzanne Briet and discussions on "What is a 'document'?" This article discusses how the Dokvit program was structured, including its curriculum, syllabus and teaching principles. In particular, it details the undergraduate student projects done this year and demonstrates how they were embedded within the historical and media situation of 1996. In conclusion, this article discusses how the experience of …

Listening To Shells And Discovering A Lost World; Epiphanic Experiences At The Museum, Catherine M.C. Closet-Crane

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper aims to entertain the possibilities for analysis, interpretation, and learning offered by evocative autoethnographic texts for LAM and LIS user studies. The focus in this paper is on storytelling as autoethnographic writing. To illustrate facets of a particular cultural experience and start a conversation about the transformative power of museum objects as documents, the story told in this paper recounts a series of events and experiences from the life of two visitors after their museum encounter with an engraved shell artifact from the archeological site of Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma.

Transmedial Documentation For Non-Visual Image Access, Melody J. Mccotter

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In my doctoral studies on information accessibility for the individual who is blind or visually impaired, I’ve been exploring the ways we can make image documents more accessible. This requires using an alternative sensory modality, and translating the document into a different format. The questions that arise when we consider this process are many, but among them are:

• Is it the same document once we’ve converted it to an audio narrative about the work, or a 3D topographic map of an artwork, or a musical interpretation?
• If it is not the same document, how truthful can the “trans-medial” translation be …