Digital datasheet for archives of images
Luiza Avelar Moreira, Letícia Pedruzzi Fonseca · Editora Blucher eBooks · 2019
Considering the several existing studies on history of design that have primary sources of printed materials as the object of their study, many researchers focus their efforts on the systematization and validation of their investigations through appropriate methodological procedures.Within this context, over the years, the Laboratory of Design: History and Typography (LadHT) has built a methodological protocol to standardize and support the different types pf research on magazines, newspapers and other printed materials, carried out by its team of researchers.The first methodological effort regards to the researcher's approach to the socio-historical context of the printed material, including literature review and additional data collection methods, such as interviews.The second effort of the research focuses on the graphic analysis, divided in 7 steps: identification and mapping of collections, photographic record of the collection, organization of the digital collection, creation of the datasheet for the analysis of the printed material, data analysis and discussion of the results (Fonseca et al, 2016).The aforementioned methodological set establishes guidelines, but also allows each researcher to make any necessary adjustments in the proposed steps.One step that always requires adjustments is the construction of the datasheet, since the definition of the variables that compose it must meet the particularities of the graphic object being studied.This paper presents a suggestion for the construction of a datasheet for the analysis of images.Since it is a very specific field within the universe of graphic elements that compose a printed material, it was necessary to perform a literature review in order to format the proposal presented herein.On top of the focus on image analysis, the proposal foresees the digital construction of the tool, since the volume of images to be analysed may be a limiting factor for the research.In this proposal, we will exclusively analyse data on the syntactic construction of the images within the archive, without any kind of semantic analysis.This is because it would be unfeasible to make a qualitative analysis in a collection with such a high number of copies.