The iSQUARE RESEARCH PROGRAM was an arts-informed, visual study of the concept of information, created and managed by Dr. Jenna Hartel from 2010 to 2020, at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. An incredible team of student researchers and artists participated along the way. As the first arts-informed study of "information," the project made theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of Information Science; it also supplied a novel visual strategy for teaching about information. These webpages are an archive of the work, which is no longer underway.
​Whether employed as a research method or pedagogical strategy, iSquares bring Information Science into the visual Information Age and create a richer  multimedia genealogy for a beloved central concept.

the research questions

Across a decade, the iSquare Research Program explored three broad questions:
  1. How do people visualize the concept of information? 
  2. How do visual conceptions of information differ among various populations? 
  3. How do these images relate to conceptions of information made of words? ​

the draw-and-write technique
​To answer the questions above, a research team employed an empirical, visual, research method known as the draw-and-write technique.  In a version known as the iSquare Protocol, informants were given a 4.25" by 4.25" piece of paper and asked to express their understanding of information as a drawing. On the reverse side of the same paper they were prompted to complete to provide a descriptive caption of that drawing. The process generated a compact piece of visual and textual data called an 'information square' or iSquare, for short. Beginning in 2010, 5,000+ iSquares  were gathered in a series of data collections, analyzed through a variety of lenses, and reported in peer-reviewed journals and conferences of Information Science.  

The video, at left, is a short introduction to the Draw-and-Write Technique. (This video is the 10th episode of the series Visual Research Methods by Jenna Hartel. Check out the whole series at INFIDEOS.) 
​OVERVIEW OF THE DRAW-AND-WRITE TECHNIQUE
Hartel, J. (2019). Draw-and-write techniques. In P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J.W. Sakshaug, & R.A. Williams (Eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations. [PDF]