A first-person theory of documentation
| Date | 14 January 2019 |
| Published date | 14 January 2019 |
| Pages | 190-212 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2018-0110 |
| Author | Tim Gorichanaz |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
A first-person theory
of documentation
Tim Gorichanaz
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Purpose –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.
Design/methodology/approach –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.
Findings –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.
Research limitations/implications –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.
Practical implications –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.
Originality/value –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.
Keywords Art, Documentation, Document management, Theory, Phenomenology, Individual behaviour
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
As documents take on new forms and social roles, the study of what documents are and how
they work becomes ever more urgent. The academic field of documentation was once
concerned with describing and organizing artifacts of scientific knowledge, narrowly
defined. Over the past few decades, scholars have applied document theory to a widening
range of lived phenomena, showing how the material, cognitive and sociocultural are
intertwined. Documentation is understood to be something not only done by experts, but
also by –and to –everyone (Day, 2014). Briet (2006) perhaps had this in mind when she
referred to humankind as Homo documentator and called documentation a necessary
cultural technique for modern life.
Recent work has discussed that, to more fully understand documentation, we must
study it from an experiential perspective (Bruce et al., 2014; Latham, 2014). This paper
builds on prior work in this area to articulate a descriptive theoretical model of
documentation suitable for experiential, first-person analysis. It then illustrates the use of
this model through presenting a phenomenological study of art-making, understood as a
form of documentation.
2. A first-person theory of documentation
2.1 The first-person perspective
It has been established in the philosophy of science that theories (a term I intend generally to
encompass theories, models, concepts, etc.) each entail a perspective (Van Fraassen, 2008).
As Elgin (2017) explains, theories have indexicality, occlusion and commitment; that is, they
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 75 No. 1, 2019
pp. 190-212
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-07-2018-0110
Received 8 July 2018
Revised 26 September 2018
Accepted 30 September 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
190
JD
75,1
represent things from somewhere and toward somewhere, they show some things at the
cost of hiding others and they represent only certain aspects of any phenomenon. Thus,
says Elgin, taking on different theoretical perspectives can show familiar things in new
ways, opening new possibilities for knowledge and design.
Specifically, Elgin dichotomizes perspective as first-person and third-person, and she
argues that some phenomena (e.g. understanding) can come to light only in the first person.
Centuries ago, this was one of the central insights of Kierkegaard (2009), who identified a
difference between objective truth (communicated results) and subjective truth (ways of
understanding and being). This was also the perspective of James (2002), who discussed the
need for the first-person perspective in the study of existential matters such as religious
experience. To give an example, third-person account of a person in love would describe
irrational behaviors, acts of affection and communication patterns, while a first-person
account of the same person would try to express the feelings and emotions of excitement
and confusion. Of course, words can only approximate the directness of experience. Worth
(2008) has suggested that such first-person, or “narrative,”knowledge can be effectively
shared through stories and poems. To put all this another way, third-person knowledge can
show that certain things are the case and how they work, while first-person knowledge
shows what things are like.
In document studies, most theorization has been done from a third-person perspective,
examining the material and social aspects of documents and ignoring the human experience
of creating or relating to documents. Indeed, this observation has been made of human
information behavior (see Hartel, 2014b), information science (see Jacob and Shaw, 1998) and
sociotechnical research generally (see Kallinikos, 2009). When it comes to information, such
an emphasis on the external perspectives may overlook something important. As Norbert
Wiener (1954, p. 18) writes, “communication and control [of information] belong to the
essence of man’s inner life, even as they belong to his life in society.”To this end, recent
work has connected documentation with the epistemic aim of understanding (Bawden, 2007;
Gorichanaz, 2017b), challenged the assumption that a person’s physically encountering a
piece of information constitutes their becoming informed Ocepek (2018), and described
becoming and being informed as a phenomenological position (Tkach, 2017).
To be sure, a small body of literature has begun to explore information experience
(Bruce et al., 2014) and document experience (Gorichanaz and Latham, 2016; Latham, 2012,
2014) –that is, to look at such phenomena from a first-person perspective, exploring
empirically how people become informed. As research in philosophy has shown, knowing
what something is like may have consequences for understanding that thing and for
developing theories and systems around it ( Jackson, 1982; Nagel, 1974). Further research
taking the first-person perspective can contribute to improved information system design
(Bruce et al., 2014; Hepworth et al., 2014), as well as more empathic and tactful information
professional practice (van Manen, 2014). Thus, in this paper, I contribute to theorization in
this area by articulating and illustrating a model of documentation (i.e. document creation)
from the first-person perspective.
2.2 Models of documentation
To a small extent, previousliterature in document theoryhas proposed models or frameworks
for conceptualizing documentation, as reviewed by Lund (2009). Here, I outline and assess
three such conceptualizations, which frame the articulation of a first-person theory: that of
Lund (2004),Gorichanaz and Latham (2016) andGorichanaz (2016). The firstof these seems to
be the dominant model among scholars, as it is the most cited and represents a consensus
view of scholars besides Lund, such as Buckland (2007) and Pédauque (2003).
2.2.1 Lund’s“complementarity perspective”. Lund (2004) developed a theory of the
document and documentation inspired by Niels Bohr’s complementarity theory in physics.
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A first-person
theory of
documentation
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