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November 13, 2006
Tourism amidst thesis writing
I finally realized that slicing and coding the data would not get me anywhere. Thanks to Don Slater, my supervisor at LSE, I started writing up case studies: assembling material together per individual cameraphone user. I now look at entities that contain both linguistic and visual data rather than trying to treat each piece separately. In the cases, I look for significant themes. Sneak preview in very general terms: values and evaluations, play and playfulness, mediating intimate relationships, and networks of technology are in my drawing board at the moment.
The turn from slices to cases has made me think, once again, about visual methods or visual methodology. They seem to me misleading labels that confuse more than they clarify. No wonder there was so much confusion at the Visual data seminar (see earlier posts) - everyone with their own studies, topics, methods, and views on what visual data analysis is for them.
I think that methodologically, visual material is best treated tightly together with the linguistic. The bond begins with the resarch questions and extends through the collection and analysis process to the interpretation of the visuals, depending on the research question. It's hopeless to try to look at the visuals only. The point what is the study at hand, the problem it tries to solve.
This, I guess, I had in mind in an elementary way when I separated the different areas of the Visual data seminar into studying published / empirically collected / researcher-authored visual material. If I was to organize the seminar now, I'd go directly into the subject-matter of each study and group the areas based on topic instead of the type of visual analysis employed.
Speaking of visual experiences, I went to the London Eye last week. I enjoyed all of it: the architecture, the bodily experience, the views. (Even the effortless online ticket purchase and collection :) ) There is something meditative (excluding the tourist crowds) about the huge wheel in constant movement, revolving smoothly and completely silently, looking light despite its massive scale.
Posted by hrantavu at November 13, 2006 12:31 PM