Carlin2003b
| Carlin2003b | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Carlin2003b |
| Author(s) | Andrew P. Carlin |
| Title | Pro forma arrangements: the visual availability of textual artefacts |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Text, Artefacts, Institutional |
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| Year | 2003 |
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| Journal | Visual Studies |
| Volume | 18 |
| Number | 1 |
| Pages | 6–20 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1080/1472586032000100038 |
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Abstract
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.
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