Johanna Drucker

Martin and Bernard Breslauer Professor
Information Studies

203 GSE&IS

drucker@gseis.ucla.edu

Education

Ph.D, Ecriture, University of California, Berkeley, 1986
M.A. Visual Studies, Berkeley, 1982
B.F.A., Printing, California College of Arts and Crafts, 1973

Research Interests

Alphabet historiography, modeling interpretation for electronic scholarship, digital aesthetics, and the history of visual information design.

Research Projects

Information visualization draws heavily on models from the empirical sciences, where approaches based on representation and transparency prevail. A counter tradition, less developed but significant, stresses the rhetorical and performative nature of visualization, with emphasis on interpretation. As digital tools for scholarly work and analysis engage visualization techniques, the challenge is to design graphic forms that inscribe subjectivity and affective judgment. This investigation is central to my current project, "Diagramming Interpretation", which will also be used to consider the design of an environment for digital scholarship.

Recent Grants

2007-08 Delmas Foundation, Grant to support partnerships for Artists Books Online distributed content development.

2007-08 NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant: From working prototype to distributed community, Artists' Books Online.

Teaching Interests

History of the book and print culture, history of information, critical studies in visual knowledge representation, collection development in book arts.

News

Johanna Drucker will be the Digital Humanities Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center for 2008-09 where she will be working on a project titled "Diagramming Interpretation."

Recent Publications

Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide, with Emily McVarish (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008)

"Digital Provocations and Applied Aesthetics" Projects in Speculative Computing," Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools, Byron Hawk, David M. Rieder, and Ollie Oviedo, eds., (Minneapolis, MN: Univerisity of Minnesota Press, 2008) pp.150-165.

"The Virtual Codex," A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, Ray Siemens, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007) pp.216-232.

"Quantum Leap: Beyond Literal Materiality," Looking Closer 5, (NY: Allworth Press, 2006) pp.26-31.

"Neon Sigh: Epistemological Refamiliarization," Avant-Post, Louis Armand, ed. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2006; pp71-84.

"Mad Love/Puppy Love," Mad Love, exhibition catalogue essay, Aarken Musuem of Modern Art, (Aarken, Denmark, 2007)

Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005)