Exploring the use of blogs for research - presence, dissemination, development, collaboration.

1. Writing …
across public and
private spaces

2. Blogs …

3. Blogs …
Article /
Installation in
Public Space

4. Blogger Presence /
Networks /
Voice
Conversations
Traces
Inscriptions …
Impressions Article /
Installation in
Public Space

5. Forum/Blog
Comments
Blogs Public
Tweets Wiki/blogs
Collaborative
Email Wikis
Objects
/ Texts
Abstract
Interactive
Spaces
Presentations
Drafts 1-28
Research
Wiki
Exploring / Articulating / Curating / Constructing / Knowledge
Articles /
Installations
in Public
Spaces

6. Blogs
Show case
Note: from this slide onwards, the main picture, (or the accompanying
text) can be clicked on to open links to more examples and detail.

7. Blogs
Narrative
Show
case

8. Blogs
Ideas in
Progress
Show
case
Narrative

9. Blogs
Point/s of
View
Show
case
Narrative
Ideas in
Progress

10. Blogs
Aggregators
Show
case
Blog /
Narrative
Webpage
Format
Point/s of
Ideas in View
Progress

11. Blogs
Research /
Presence
Show
case
Narrative
Public / Private /
Collaborative / Showcase
Point/s of Aggregators
Ideas in
View
Progress

12. Blogs
Boundaries,
Affordances,
Spaces ?
Show
case
Narrative
Research
Presence
Point/s of Aggregators
Ideas in
View
Progress

13. Thank
you

15. The Narrative .... Slide 3 Blogs …
Article / Installation
in Public Space
Writing across public and
We can look at social media as affordances that expand and
Private spaces
transform existing modes of speech and writing (or „parole‟ and
Introduction „langue‟ in semiotic terms). The question is, how do we
progress from conversations (having a chat over a cup of
coffee), to curating, combining and displaying texts and ideas
Slide 1
in public space – either as a physical installation, or as a
This is a presentation based on some conversations between
„published‟ article or book? And there really doesn't seem to
Roy Williams and Simone Gumtau, for the Art, Design and
be any reason why the one („articles‟) should be regarded as
Media seminar on “Your research profile – What is the use of
having any different status from the other („installations‟) - as
blogs?” in January 2013 at the University of Portsmouth – (and
„published research‟ – as long as an equivalence can be found
It borrows several nuggets from the conversations at that for „peer reviewing‟.
seminar, too).
Slide 2
Presence /
Networks /
Voice
Slide 4
Conversations Blogger
Traces
Inscriptions …
Impressions Article /
Installation in
Public Space
This includes some examples of how blogs and other social So, what‟s new? Much is just the same – we still have
media are used, and of ways we can think about them. My conversations, these leave traces in memory, they make
own approach can be summed up in two points: start simple, impressions, and some of them end up as ‘inscriptions‟ in
and focus on function, not technology. Most social software public spaces.
has many different affordances, and many of these overlap.

16. The part that is new is that social media offer powerful versioned, combined with other texts / ideas etc.
affordances for creating presence, developing your „voice‟ Some Examples
and, most importantly, for creating your own, new networks Here are some examples of uses of social media, most of which
within which to do this. Previously you had to join existing can be achieved through blogs. But as we said above, its
networks, within established patronage systems, which important to focus on the function, not the technology,
required obeisance, and deference. because a crucial characteristic of social media is that they are
flexible -they have „open affordances‟.
Forum/Blog
Comments
Blogs Public
Tweets Wiki/blogs
Collaborative
Email Wikis
Objects
/ Texts
Abstract
Interactive
Spaces
Presentations
Drafts 1-28
Slide 5
Research
Wiki
Exploring / Articulating / Curating / Constructing / Knowledge
Articles /
Installations
in Public
Spaces
Slide 6
What‟s at stake here is that we can move backwards and
forwards across all these modes and media: exploring, This is an extreme example of a show case – the production line
articulating, curating and constructing knowledge. Social that Zaha Hadid ran right through the centre of the new BMW
media offer so many ways to have conversations and exchange Headquarters building in Germany, as only she could. Blogs are
texts, and because so many of these conversations are, en a good, quick way to showcase work. The hyperlink on the
passant, „recoded conversations‟, they can be re-used, re- image, however, is to a showcase in a wiki – for „footprints of
versioned, aggregated, mashed up, etc – providing wonderful emergence‟ – if could equally be done in a blog, except for the
resources for creating new ideas, perspectives, artefacts and fact that it is a hybrid use, as it also serves as a collaborative
knowledge. space for people to create their own „footprints‟ – and that
These same recorded / conversations can take place across all could not be done as easily on a blog.
of the elements on slide 5, and be copied, pasted, re-

17. particularly for second language speakers. But as you research
embodied perception and learning, you realise that
Slide 7
prepositions are wonderfully proprioceptive indices of the
Narrative blogs are easy to create using this format, which is
flavour of the way people move, and relate to each other in
a variation on „digital story-telling‟, except that there is no
space within their „language‟ – which is so much more than
audio track, the words are done in text instead. A narrative words.
like the one in the linked blog post can be created in 15
minutes or so. This can be used, for instance, for gathering
Slide 9
and structuring research data, and narrative accounts - serious
Point of view blogs are also quite standard, by now. But they
or fun.
do establish a new kind of meme, or genre – they are more
than a newspaper or magazine „column‟, as they‟re more „free-
Slide 8
standing‟, less institutional, more personal voice than „writing‟.
Ideas or thoughts in progress are „standard‟ for blogs. They There are also ways of creating parallel columns of blogs,
can be used as „nuggets‟ or „knowledge objects‟ in a research which an be used for several emerging points of view - but this
process (or in writing books). They might be copy/paste/re- has to be done inside a wiki – effectively creating something
versioned bits of emails or conversations, encapsulated in a that looks like many blog pages alongside each other (simpler
blog post, like this. They often reflect a change or shift in than it sound, actually).
perspective, which might or might not be the start of a paper
or presentation – or book or installation for that matter. This
one is about prepositions, of all things.
Slide 10
Aggregators can play various roles in blogs. This one is an
Previously prepositions seemed to me to be counterproductive,
aggregator blog, or newsletter, that Stephen Downes
untranslatable, and even perverse parts of language,

18. runs, for a very large subscribed audience. It‟s a good is itself a kind of hybrid „research presence‟ which is now
example of aggregation – scanning, sampling, added a posted into Slide Share, but could just as well be posted on a
comment and perspective, and then providing a range blog.
of links for the reader to explore, themselves. It is also linked
to a more extensive version of the same thing, on a webpage
(if you click on the banner graphics). He has developed an
open source aggregator, GRSSHOPPER, which you can use too.
Slide 11
This is a link to the Potosi Principle installation, which is a
good example of research presence, and also of how an
installation can function in the same way as a research paper
or book. To wit, it is based on extensive research for ideas,
objects, images, theories (about colonial extraction of silver
and surplus value from the Potosi mines in Peru), linked up to
an analysis of how painting functioned – both in Peru and
elsewhere, to support and legitimise this extraction /
exploitation. And all of this is curated, structured cross-

19. This was an issue. This cartoon was only included, and
Slide 12 „published‟ in the blog after quite a bit of soul searching.
One of the most interesting things about social software is Eventually it was decided that it should be included, because it
is used to make perfectly respectable academic points, but
that like many of the most interesting innovations in
more so that it also illustrates the way the space of „academic
communication, it completely restructures social space – how
debate‟ has been broadened. Zizek, in particular, makes a
and where we live and do things. In particular, it radically
point of doing so, even though he sometimes enjoys stepping
shifts the boundaries of public and private space. And in the
over the boundaries a bit much.
process, it demonstrates how every new technology, meme or
„teme‟ crates new affordances, and changes the social ecology. Thank
There is another issue here, of course – namely, the issue of You
the borders of „serious‟ blogs that try to contribute to
academic discussion. In this case, the issue is whether humour
(and „toilet‟ humour) is appropriate for a „serious‟ blog.