Technology and ‘the death of Art History’
CHArt ANNUAL CONFERENCE
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Technology and ‘the death of Art History’
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Catherine Larkin
Current research methodologies of scholars in the visual arts: “This is what I do.”
Overall, this research was directed at achieving an understanding of the complex processes involved in the information-seeking behaviors of visual arts humanities scholars and developing an information-seeking model in image and text retrieval for the domain. It was proposed that along with our limited understanding regarding how members of the visual arts community seek and use both imagery and textual information vital for scholarly investigations, the proliferation of electronic images and texts has become a source of encouragement as well as unease for these scholars. In contrast to most other disciplines, visual arts scholars who are increasingly reliant upon electronic sources (especially images), remain intimidated by technology and question the prospect of accessing electronically many of the documents necessary to accomplish their unique research agendas.
The techniques used to gather data from visual arts scholars at three American Universities, namely Long Island University, the City University of New York, and Princeton University, included a Phase I self-administered questionnaire to query participants on demographic information, their use of information resources and their approaches to locating information. In Phase II, an interactive survey instrument was employed to examine users’ satisfaction and frustration with both Web-based and academic image and text retrieval systems. This process was audio-recorded to gather experiential data and was followed by the completion of an Information Horizon graphical representation technique (Sonnenwald, 2005), which enabled participants to report on their individual information sources, thus capturing data that could be lost by conventional methods such as a questionnaire or survey.
The collective findings of this study identified a domain in flux, with traditional methodologies still intact, a considerable change in the volume of use of electronic resources, and evidence of a more social working environment. For example, there were significant correlations found in regard to senior participants and a number of traditional resources such as an art slide collection and traveling to see original works, yet there were no obvious differences found related to age or experience with computer use for research or Internet use in general. For the most part, reactions to electronic academic resources were negative due to a lack of familiarity with these more complicated systems. Finally, an Ecological Information-Seeking Model was devised to present a conceptual visual aid and an alternative framework that can accommodate future dynamic shifts in information-seeking in the visual arts.