How Artists Translate Image Needs on Social Media: Preliminary Analysis of Interaction

Articulating the need for an image can be challenging, as describing an image is more subjective than conveying textual information. This poster investigates how 19 visual artists articulate and accomplish their image needs while searching on social networking sites (SNSs), using data from observations and interviews. The findings revealed five types of image needs and five types of queries employed by visual artists. A unique query type identified on SNSs is the Ideation‐oriented query, which explicitly asks for ideas in the search field for inspiration, direct use, or modification in their creative process. The poster highlights the artists’ needs in their natural settings and how they attempt to communicate with an AI‐mediated environment to retrieve images using natural language.