I propose a network visualization tutorial in Gephi – an open-source, multiplatform software, commonly referred to as Data Photoshop.

Gephi has an intuitive user-friendly interface, which allows to visualize and analyze social networks, biological networks, infrastructures, time series (dynamic graphs), map geotagged data, and much more.

We’ll also look at tools that can help you generate network data for Gephi.

Bring your own dataset or play with the ones available, and take home a cute souvenir like the one below:

Battlefronts_black

I propose a session that frames the library as a junk shop. Inspired by the bricolage and pastiche skills cultivated by second-hand print cultures (zinesters, collagists, Dada), participants will subvert the library’s traditional role as a searchable repository by browsing the stacks for provocative visual rhetoric just as one might at their local thrift store. Participants will then reproduce their scavenged fodder, bringing them into their own compositions by using the copy/scan features of photocopiers found on every floor of the library.

Though I’ve used this activity with a unit on self-publishing (and will share this handout I’ve used), we might end this session by sharing our own compositions and discussing various ways we can reframe it in our own classes as a way to introduce students to multiple resources in our libraries, encourage visual composition, and to emphasize the role of serendipity and exploration in research.