Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature on the information behavior of practicing visual artists to determine if a consistent model emerges and what further research is necessary.

Works dealing with the information needs and uses relevant to the creative activities of visual artists are discussed in the paper. These works are assessed for their contributions toward understanding of the specific information behaviors of practicing artists.

The results show that a consistent model of artists' information behavior emerges. However, nearly all of the literature focuses on art students, academic art faculty, or librarians, and so any claim that practicing artists fit the model is largely unsupported by research. There have been no published studies of communities of practicing visual artists. The implications of defining artists as communities of practice are discussed.

Research is proposed that studies the information behavior of communities of practicing visual artists in order to confirm or amend the existing model.

Practitioners will have their attention drawn to an underserved user population whose information needs and behaviors have not been directly targeted for research. They will recognize the need for study of their own artist communities and the development of services for them.

This paper directs the discussion of artists' information behavior away from the art‐library‐specific literature, where it has largely resided, as a means of adjusting the focus of research onto the largely unstudied and underserved communities of practicing artists.

Information makes an important contribution to the promotion of the creativity of visual artists. This work aims to explore relevant research through a systematic review of the literature and discuss the impact of information on visual artists' creativity.

A systematic literature review was conducted through Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses method. The authors searched and retrieved 1,320 papers from which, after evaluation, 41 papers have been analyzed.

Two thematic categories were identified for visual artists' information needs: (1) the need for professional development and (2) the need for creative techniques and materials. In terms of information sources visual artists employ, the authors have also identified seven broad categories: (1) conventional resources (galleries, museums, etc.), (2) professional scholar sources, (3) digital art websites, (4) informal information online and colleagues, (5) libraries, (6) personal collections and (7) professional scholar social networks. In addition, the study proceeded to classify the obstacles faced by visual artists in their search for visual information into two general categories: (1) environmental barriers and (2) digital literacy barriers.

Although the investigation of the information needs satisfaction of visual artists as well as the evaluation of their information behavior patterns and information literacy competences is essential, it is understudied. This paper summarizes the relevant literature in a concrete and systematic way providing evidences to be considered in a variety of situations, i.e. developing lifelong learning programs, managing visual art library collections, library services development for artists, etc.

This paper aims to report an empirical study of the information‐related behaviour of emerging artists and designers. It also aims to add to understanding of the information behaviour of the group both as practising artists (a little understood category of information users), and also as “new practitioners”.

A literature analysis is used to guide creation of an online questionnaire, eliciting both qualitative and quantitative data. A total of 78 practising artists participated, all having graduated in the seven years prior to the survey.

The group have generally the same information practices as more established artists. They place reliance on internet and social networks, while also using traditional printed tools and libraries. Browsing is important, but not a predominant means of accessing information. Inspiration is found from a very diverse and idiosyncratic set of sources, often by serendipitous means. Their status as emergent practitioners means that their information behaviour is governed by cost factors, and by needs for career advice and interaction with peers.

The study group are a convenience sample, all having access to the internet. No observation or interviews were carried out.

The results will provide guidance to academic and public librarians serving artist users, and to those providing career advice to them. It will also be valuable to those providing services to “new practitioners” in any field.

This is one of a very few papers reporting empirical studies of the information behaviour of artists, and has the largest sample size of any such study. It is one of a very few papers considering the information needs and behaviour of new practitioners.

Little is known about the information‐seeking behavior of practicing visual artists; what research exists has focused largely on art students, art faculty and librarians, although an untested model does emerge. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of an empirical study of a community of practicing visual artists, and to determine whether the model can be applied to such communities.

A quantitative study was administered to a sample of a community of practicing visual artists in order to determine the community's use of various information sources in the service of creative and sales activities.

The paper finds that the model may be applied to practicing visual artists. It provides a portrait of the information behavior of a specific community of practice, and suggests how information use may differ, while following the model, among different demographic groups within the community.

The research approach and findings do not conclusively define the uses that artists make of information. The sample size prohibits definitive analysis by demographic data. The quantitative approach facilitates effective identification of community behaviors, but qualitative research might enhance these findings by illuminating the information‐seeking and use processes of individuals.

Information providers will have a means of gathering and analyzing data about the information behaviors of specific communities of visual artists to be used in the creation of enhanced information environments.

The paper presents the first published research into the information behavior of a community of practicing visual artists without regard to alternative sources of income, academic affiliation, or library use. It presents a means of focusing on these unstudied and underserved communities.

The aim of this study is to explore the information needs and behaviors of practicing theatre artists. Psychological research into creativity provides a framework for understanding both theatre artists' information‐seeking behavior and the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative process.

The exploratory study presents findings from an online questionnaire of 73 practicing theatre artists and qualitative data gathered from eight interviews with theatre professionals.

The study reveals that theatre artists seek information for six primary purposes: understanding a work's historical, cultural, and critical background; finding sources of inspiration; learning about contemporary or historical theatre productions, artists, and events; learning technical or process information; finding performance materials; and furthering career goals. Theatre artists view the information search process as being essential to their creative activities, and their first‐hand accounts of their artistic experiences illuminate the critical role that information seeking and gathering play in the creative process.

Some theatre professions, such as lighting or sound design, were represented in the questionnaire but were not represented in the interviews.

The study has practical implications for the delivery of library and internet theatre art collections and information services.

Few studies have examined the information‐seeking behavior of practicing theatre artists. The paper demonstrates that studies of artists can be used to understand the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative processes of people working in various subject domains.

The purpose of this paper is to first articulate and then illustrate a descriptive theoretical model of documentation (i.e. document creation) suitable for analysis of the experiential, first-person perspective.

Three models of documentation in the literature are presented and synthesized into a new model. This model is then used to understand the findings from a phenomenology-of-practice study of the work of seven visual artists as they each created a self-portrait, understood here as a form of documentation.

A number of themes are found to express the first-person experience of art-making in these examples, including communicating, memories, reference materials, taking breaks and stepping back. The themes are discussed with an eye toward articulating what is shared and unique in these experiences. Finally, the themes are mapped successfully to the theoretical model.

The study involved artists creating self-portraits, and further research will be required to determine if the thematic findings are unique to self-portraiture or apply as well to art-making, to documentation generally, etc. Still, the theoretical model developed here seems useful for analyzing documentation experiences.

As many activities and tasks in contemporary life can be conceptualized as documentation, this model provides a valuable analytical tool for better understanding those experiences. This can ground education and management decisions for those involved.

This paper makes conceptual and empirical contributions to document theory and the study of the information behavior of artists, particularly furthering discussions of information and document experience.

This study aims to explore visual artists’ image needs and the obstacles they face in meeting them.

The visual artists, participating in the study, included painters, graphic designers, textile designers, architects and sculptors who were faculty members in two oldest art institutions of Pakistan. A total of 20 face-to-face interviews representing four participants from each visual artists group were conducted. The textual data were analyzed thematically, using NVIVO 12 software.

Results showed that under-study visual artists need images mainly for academic purposes (teaching, assignments, etc.) and for professional and research purposes. However, they require images quite often, as a majority of the respondents told that they need images on daily basis.

The study findings provide an insight for information science professionals, system designers and image librarians regarding visual artists’ image using behavior.

As the researchers could not find any such study in local context, and a very few globally, therefore, this study may serve as a baseline for further research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a research study which examined how and why images were used by professional image users to inform the design and development of information systems and services.

A total of 20 participants in four user groups, archaeologist, architect, art historian and artist, took part in this qualitative research study. Data was collected through a survey and one-on-one semi-structured interview and data analysis was completed using case-ordered displays and the constant comparative method.

The findings revealed that image use varied according to profession. Archaeologists and art historians identified using images within their lecture presentations, and for research and publications. While architects and artists noted using images for research and design creation, their work products differed. Several reasons why these professionals used images in their work were identified: knowledge, conceptual model, inspiration, cognitive recall, critical thinking, emotion, engagement, marketing, proof, social connection, translation, and trust.

Study limitations include the small number of user groups, and methods dependent on participants' abilities to recall and clearly articulate past activities.

The study clarifies the varied roles visual information plays in the work of archaeologists, architects, art historians and artists. As the paper reveals how and why images are used, its contents are particularly useful for systems designers, librarians and other individuals who support image users.

The aim of this study is to investigate how the information needs satisfaction of visual art teachers affects their creativity. Visual art teachers’ information seeking behaviour and specifically the association of information needs satisfaction with creativity has been an understudied area, despite competent information seeking being considered essential for high quality practices of art teachers.

A questionnaire survey was developed addressing the information seeking behaviour of art teachers, informed by Wilson’s model (1981), including visual art teachers’ information needs, information resources, obstacles faced while seeking information and the perceived impact of information needs satisfaction on visual art teachers’ creativity.

The study included 298 visual art teachers in Greece. The results demonstrated that the key information needs of art teachers were mainly related to materials’ properties, techniques for creating artwork and artwork promotion methods. Online information sources were the preferred sources of art information, followed by colleagues, personal collections and visits to galleries and museums. Our study identified lack of time, lack of specialized libraries and copyright, as the main barriers to information seeking.

Information about art plays a substantial role in visual art education, while visual art teachers’ information needs satisfaction positively influences their creative endeavours. There is a need to further explore the digital information needs of visual art teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the preservation practices of new media artists, in particular those working outside of the scope of major collecting institutions, examining how these artists preserve new media artworks in their custody.

The paper builds case studies of seven new media artists of differing practices and artistic approaches. For each case study, semi-structured interviews with the artists were conducted in conjunction with visits to the artists’ studios.

The study finds that new media artists face a number of shared preservation challenges and employ a range of preservation strategies, and that these challenges and strategies differ markedly from that of art museums and cultural heritage institutions.

This study considers preservation practices for new media artists generally. Further research into specific communities of artistic practice could profitably build upon this overall framework.

The findings of this research pose a number of implications for art museums and cultural heritage institutions, suggesting new ways these institutions might consider supporting the preservation of new media artworks before works enter into institutional custody.

The literature on new media art preservation emphasizes the importance of working with artists early in the life cycle of digital artworks. This study advances this by investigating preservation from the perspective of new media artists, deepening the understanding of challenges and potential preservation strategies for these artworks prior to entering or outside of institutional custody.