Blunt Instrumentalism:

Tenen, Dennis

doi:10.5749/j.ctt1cn6thb.12

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The black-box-tradeoff states that the easier a tool is to use, the more it hides complexity and is blackboxed (see Figure 3). This point corresponds to Tenen’s (2016) concept of CTP and is widely echoed (Dobson, 2019; Rieder and Röhle, 2017; Van Es et al, 2021; Van Geenen, 2020). Easy-to-use black boxes, so the argument goes, lead users to ‘lazy thinking’ (Tenen, 2016) and adopting ‘unreflexive’ practices (Dobson, 2019: 3).…”

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Much tool criticism also assumes that tools embody methods. Rieder and Röhle (2017) write that Gephi 'performs a method' while for Tenen (2016), 'the tool can only serve as a vehicle for methodology '. Van Es et al (2021) quote Dobson (2019: 8) to say that tools 'require some formalization of the methodology'.…”

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tools are not neutral, Kranzberg says, simply because their effects are observably different from their purposes. Of the many different ways to make this argument, one in particular has been favored in the social science and humanities (SSH) literature on tool criticism: easy-to-use tools have detrimental effects because their users are let free to exploit them without understanding them (Tenen, 2016; Van Es et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For Tenen (2016), ‘any “ease of use” gained in simplifying the instrument comes at the expense of added and hidden complexity’ (see also Van Es et al, 2021). This point is imported from HCI, where ease-of-use is part of the concept of usability, as defined by the norm ISO 9241 (Quesenbery, 2001).…”

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is a common refrain in critiques of computational tools for digital methods research that ease of use dissuades critical thinking (Tenen, 2016;Van Es et al, 2021). Even relatively complex tools like the visual network analysis platform Gephi, which was not designed with ease of use in mind, is subject to this kind of critique (Lemercier and Zalc, 2019;Wieringa et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Interfering with the black-box-tradeoff model: Gephisto, a one-click Gephi for critical technical practice

Jacomy

Munk

2022

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents and justifies Gephisto, an experimental tool visualizing networks in one click. Gephisto’s design exemplifies how we can interfere with a user’s utilitarian goals, by giving them what they wish (an easy way to get a network map) but in disobedient ways (the produced map is different every time the tool is used) that encourage them to engage further with the tool’s methodological tenets. As an apparatus, Gephisto aims to incentivize untrained users to become more critical of their network mapping practices. As an intervention into the field of digital methods, it aims to show that tools that support critical thinking do not have to be hard to use and hostile to beginners. We criticize the idea that tools range from easy-to-use black boxes for unreflexive lazy-thinkers, to complex and demanding instruments for hard-thinking experts. We argue that learners need ease of use and critical thinking at the same time, and that it is possible to design tools that support both needs at once. We offer an alternative model where we acknowledge the active role of the user in deciding the tradeoff between learning to master the tool, and progressing toward their utilitarian goals. We argue that the design of the tool should not oppose the beginner’s need for assistance in decision making, but find other ways to incentivize critical thinking.

show abstract

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Black-box-tradeoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Interfering with the black-box-tradeoff model: Gephisto, a one-click Gephi for critical technical practice

Jacomy

Munk

2022

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Digital humanities and technical communication pedagogy

Ballentine

2022

Commun. Des. Q. Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Technical communication instructors, especially those with expertise in visual rhetoric, information design, or multimedia writing are well-suited to teach an introductory Digital Humanities (DH) course. Offering a DH course provides an opportunity to reach extrafield audiences and work with students from a variety of humanities disciplines who may not have the option of taking such a course in their home department. The article advocates for a DH course that offers a methods-driven pedagogy that engages students with active learning by requiring them to research, dissect, and report on existing DH projects, as well as work with existing datasets and methods from prior student research projects or existing DH tools. The sample student project reviewed here uses the data visualization software ImagePlot, and discussion includes how the student used the tool to examine changes in brightness, hue, and color saturation, as well as calculate the total number of distinct shapes from 397 comic book covers. Ultimately, the students are tasked with developing a research question and moving to an articulated methods-driven approach for exploring the question. The student project along with the tools and sample datasets available with them are treated as a module that may be included in an introductory DH course syllabus or training session.

show abstract

Digital methods for intertextuality studies

Molitor

Ritter

2020

It - Information Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is undisputed that with the application of digital methods humanities issues can be addressed which could not be addressed so far. This is the third special issue on digital methods in the humanities that is published in it-Information Technology. The first one was published in 2009 by Thomas Burch, Claudine Moulin and Andrea Rapp, at that time all working at the Trier Center for Digital Humanities [1], the second one in 2016 by Manfred Thaller from University of Cologne [2]. Both issues presented humanities questions where the use of digital methods is useful or even necessary. As Manfred Thaller wrote in his editorial, many of them are challenges definitely worthy of a computer scientist. However, the situation has hardly changed in the last decade. Digital Humanities continue to be an issue only in the humanities and are largely ignored by computer scientists. In Germany in particular, there are only a few working groups in computer science dealing with the counterpart of Digital Humanities, the so called eHumanities which is concerned with the development of new and non-trivial information technology approaches to support humanities scholars in addressing their issues. With this special issue we would like to draw our computer science colleagues' attention to the exciting topics and the associated challenges at the interface between humanities and computer science, once again. Even though the special issue only deals with digital methods for textbased studies, there are exciting issues for computer scientists in almost all humanities fields. Take art history or archaeology, for example, where computer vision or 3D-modelling and-reconstruction play central roles. Or take political and social sciences, where big data analysis and deep learning methods have become indispensable digital methods. To answer questions in the humanities, a sound knowledge of data structures and efficient algo

show abstract

Blunt Instrumentalism:

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Interfering with the black-box-tradeoff model: Gephisto, a one-click Gephi for critical technical practice

Interfering with the black-box-tradeoff model: Gephisto, a one-click Gephi for critical technical practice

Digital humanities and technical communication pedagogy

Digital methods for intertextuality studies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About