Speculative practices : utilizing InfoVis to explore untapped literary collections

Funding: Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research CouncilIn this paper we exemplify how information visualization supports speculative thinking, hypotheses testing, and preliminary interpretation processes as part of literary research. While InfoVis has become a buzz topic in the digital humanities, skepticism remains about how effectively it integrates into and expands on traditional humanities research approaches. From an InfoVis perspective, we lack case studies that show the specific design challenges that make literary studies and humanities research at large a unique application area for information visualization. We examine these questions through our case study of the Speculative W@nderverse, a visualization tool that was designed to enable the analysis and exploration of an untapped literary collection consisting of thousands of science fiction short stories. We present the results of two empirical studies that involved general-interest readers and literary scholars who used the evolving visualization prototype as part of their research for over a year. Our findings suggest a design space for visualizing literary collections that is defined by (1) their academic and public relevance, (2) the tension between qualitative vs. quantitative methods of interpretation, (3) result- vs. process-driven approaches to InfoVis, and (4) the unique material and visual qualities of cultural collections. Through the Speculative W@nderverse we demonstrate how visualization can bridge these sometimes contradictory perspectives by cultivating curiosity and providing entry points into literary collections while, at the same time, supporting multiple aspects of humanities research processes.PostprintPeer reviewe

The stuff of science fiction : an experiment in literary history

Funding: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaThis article argues for a speculative, exploratory approach to literary history that incorporates information visualization early on into, and throughout, the research process. The proposed methodology combines different kinds of expertise—including that of fans and scholars in both literary studies and computer science—in processing and sharing unique cultural materials. Working with a vast fan-curated archive, we suggest tempering scholarly approaches to the history of science fiction (SF) with fan perspectives and demonstrate how information visualization can be incorporated into humanistic research processes, supporting exploration and interpretation of little-known cultural collections.PostprintPeer reviewe

Digital découpage: reading and prototyping the material poetics and queer ephemera of the Edwin Morgan scrapbooks, 1931-1966

My thesis takes as its object of study sixteen scrapbooks compiled between 1931 and 1966 by Scots Makar Edwin Morgan (1920-2010), which are currently housed in the University of Glasgow Library Special Collections. I focus on reading the Morgan scrapbooks through two paradigms. Firstly, I approach the scrapbooks as materiallyspecific texts that demand close readings not only of their content, but of their forms and format. Specifically, I read the material practices and poetics of Morgan’s scrapbooking through queer theories of ephemera and temporalities, even in cases where the contents of the scrapbooks are not themselves overtly queer, and argue that these queer poetics extend as an influence throughout Morgan’s broader literary corpus. I also argue that the scrapbooks speak through “language[s] of juxtaposition” (Garvey, Writing with Scissors 131) that can be productively unfolded through close readings informed by Bruno Latour’s sociological theories. Secondly, I approach the Morgan scrapbooks as a test case to demonstrate the value of using digital humanities and visualization methods to engage ephemeral archival items in ‘research through design’ processes. My thesis interprets the Morgan scrapbooks through the creation of custom-built databases and prototypical interfaces that make discoverable the scrapbooks’ rich metadata, while also arguing that Morgan’s scrapbooks are particularly open to such digital interventions due to their reliance on intermediation and their documentation of technological innovations. The three visual prototypes resulting from my project are not intended to reproduce faithfully or replace the scrapbooks, but rather to experiment with how the media specificities of the digital can be put into conversation with Morgan’s materially-complex and technologically-aware scrapbooks. The prototypes also enable explorations of the productive points of contact that exist between scrapbooks, databases, and prototypes as forms of information management and tools of interpretation. Collectively, these two approaches demonstrate the value of, and need for, close readings and innovative digital remediations for scrapbooked (hi)stories like Morgan’s, as well as for many other ephemeral and marginalized material archives

Navigating Brave New Worlds: A Close Analysis of Anne McLaren's Laboratory Notebook

Dr Anne McLaren (1927–2007) was a leading developmental biologist with a decorated career that spanned more than fifty years. In particular, McLaren was interested in the ways in which an individual is always connected to, and a part of, its many environments. This interest led her to the study of mammalian development and genetics, where her work famously advanced the development of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The British Library holds an extensive collection of McLaren's papers (Add. MSS. 83830-83981 and Add. MS. 89202) and this article focuses on one laboratory notebook from these papers, Add. MS. 83844, in particular. This notebook documents egg transfer experiments conducted on mice by McLaren and her collaborator Dr Donald Michie (1923–2007) between 1955 and 1959. As I will work to show, this notebook allows a consideration of the painstaking daily tasks on which scientific advancements rely and provides insight into McLaren's working environments as she approached the IVF breakthrough. The first section of the article therefore analyses the ways in which the notebook is used to structure the detailed experimental data on egg transfers that it collects. The second section of the article situates the egg transfer experiments within the larger context of McLaren's working environment at the time of the notebook's creation, including by showing their connection to the IVF experiments. Throughout this discussion, I argue that Add. MS. 83844 attests to the ways in which McLaren used the environments, people, and resources around her to their fullest potential, asking as much as she could from them while also giving back to and through them

Body Modification: Recombinant Materiality and Ethics in the Remediated Print Wor(l)d

This thesis examines two case studies of experimental print texts in order to trace how their materiality shapes their meanings. My case studies are Tom Phillips’s A Humument (5th ed., 2012) and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes (2010), both of which are altered texts that have materially manipulated an existing print text in their creative processes. Guided by the materially-focused and interdisciplinary theories of Bruno Latour, I strive to model a reading of these case studies that pays heed to the specificity of their materiality, as well as connecting them to related networks of other texts and material histories that are revealed by their interactions with the texts they alter. Through these case studies, this thesis therefore examines the communicative role of materiality more broadly, while questioning the attendant consequences, and even the ethics, of altering or appropriating this materiality

Online Content Analysis of Ontario Public Libraries’ Sensory Programming and Service Offerings

Sensory storytimes and other similar sensory programming and services, are those which have been specifically designed to respect the needs of autistic children and/or children with sensory processing disorders, even while also being open to a range of neurodiverse attendance. These programs and services are important ways in which public libraries can work to become more inclusive spaces. Nonetheless, sensory storytimes and other sensory programs and services are not as widely offered at Canadian libraries as they could be. In order to concretize and draw attention to this gap, this paper describes our content analysis research, conducted in July 2021, of Ontario Public Library (OPL) websites and their sensory programming and services listings. Although we found that some OPLs are offering sensory storytimes, as well as other sensory programming and services, we emphasize that offering and advertising these programs and services effectively remains an area of growth potential within Ontario. &nbsp

In defense of sandcastles : research thinking through visualization in digital humanities

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), grant number 430-2013-692.Although recent research acknowledges the potential of visualization methods in digital humanities (DH), the predominant terminology used to describe visualizations (prototypes and tools) focuses on their use as a means to an end and, more importantly, as an instrument in the service of humanities research. We introduce the sandcastle as a metaphorical lens and provocative term to highlight visualization as a research process in its own right. We argue that building visualization sandcastles provides a holistic approach to cross-disciplinary knowledge generation that embraces visualization as (1) an aesthetic provocation to elicit critical insights, interpretation, speculation, and discussions within and beyond scholarly audiences, (2) a dynamic process wherein speculation and re-interpretation advance knowledge within all disciplines involved, and (3) a mediator of ideas and theories within and across disciplines. Our argument is grounded in critical theory, DH, design, human–computer interaction, and visualization, and based on our own research on an exceptional literary collection. We argue that considering visualizations as sandcastles foregrounds valuable insights into the roles of visualization as a mindset, methodology, and praxis within humanities research and beyond.PostprintPeer reviewe