Emphasizing the Social in Sociotechnical Approaches to the Digital Curation of Visual Information

This panel explores the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the expanded sociotechnical practices associated with the preservation, curation, and use of visual information and ongoing perceptions of the affordances and constraints associated with new and emerging visual information objects. The panelists and the respondent work with the curation and preservation of visual information across a variety of research areas and utilize both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand the parallel and divergent sociotechnical challenges of curating visual information across analog, digitized, and born-digital contexts. Sites of analysis range from format-specific identity-representation issues to the cultural practices of media archivists, translational challenges when moving complex scientific data across various digital and analog formats, and the role of accessibility in the design and deployment of discovery systems within cultural heritage institutions. Responding to the unique and intersecting challenges produced by working with visual information across various archival and digital curation contexts, the panelist will reflect on the practical and theoretical outcomes from ongoing research projects and identify persistent and emergent issues within the digital curation of visual information.