iSquares Demo

This website is the home of an ongoing, arts-informed, visual research project into the concept of information. It is geared for scholars, educators, and students in the field of information science but may be of interest to others, too. The study explores: 1) How do people visualize the concept of information?, 2) How do visual conceptions of information differ among various populations?, and 3) How do these images relate to conceptions of information made of words? To answer these questions, a research team at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto employs an empirical, visual method known as the draw-and-write technique. Research subjects are given a 4.25\" by 4.25\" piece of paper and asked to express their understanding of information in the form of a drawing (see a photo of the drawing activity). On the back side of the same paper they are prompted to complete the phrase, \"Information is...\". The process generates a compact piece of visual and textual data coined an \"iSquare.\"