Pro forma arrangements

The visual availability of textual artefacts

Datos Bibliográficos

ID18956655
AutoresAndrew P Carlin (0000-0001-5138-9384, University College Dublin, autor de correspondencia), Andrew Carlin (0009-0007-0679-4648)
Año2003
Volumen18
Número1
Páginas6-20
Fecha de publicación2003-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaVisual Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1472-586X • E-ISSN: 1472-5878
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1472586032000100038
OpenAlexW2035599100
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas12
Referencias citadas23

In this paper I discuss “at-a-glance” properties of textual materials in a series of work environments, including hospitals, libraries and ticket offices. I describe how members visually orient to mundane textual materials (“pro formas”) as constituents of courses of action. From the analysis of texts-in-action, I suggest that the organization of administrative texts, including blood-test requests and missing-item reports, is amenable to formal descriptions (“apostolic function”, “career”); and situated descriptions (sequencing of activities and use of membership categories). Information is rendered visually available through (a) the spatial arrangements of textual artefacts in social settings; (b) the spatial arrangements or layout of specific documents. These “visibility arrangements” of textual materials are reflexively related to the recognition and retrieval of particular documents

Art · Geography · Linguistics · Situated · Sociology · Ticket · Visibility · Visual arts · Computer Science · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Visual Culture and Art Theory · Artificial Intelligence