Carlin2003b
| Carlin2003b | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Carlin2003b |
| Author(s) | Andrew P. Carlin |
| Title | Pro forma arrangements: The visual availability of textual artefacts |
| Editor(s) | Mike Ball |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Text, Artefacts, Institutional |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2003 |
| Language | |
| City | |
| Month | |
| Journal | Visual Studies |
| Volume | 18 |
| Number | 1 |
| Pages | 6-20 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1080/1472586032000100038 |
| ISBN | |
| Organization | |
| Institution | |
| School | |
| Type | |
| Edition | |
| Series | Special Issue: Image Work |
| Howpublished | |
| Book title | |
| Chapter | |
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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