Every day, we search online for information and images to find ourselves and understand our place within the world and in the deeper currents of history.
Join MOCA for an illuminating presentation by Dr. Amy Marshall Furness, a Wikipedia editor, scholar, educator and Chief Librarian of Victoria University.
Furness will discuss how we build reliable information online, and why information literacy and community participation in creating and maintaining information are more important than ever in the age of AI.
This talk responds to Sara Cwynar’s exhibition Baby Blue Benzo Beta. Alpha/Alphabet (2025/26) transforms the gallery space through custom modular panels inspired by Aby Warburg’s unfinished Mnemosyne Atlas (1925–29). Pulled from popular search terms and Cwynar’s own browsing history, words and phrases like “disinformation,” “new woman,” “plastic,” “wrestle,” and “youth” are translated into visual form. Extending Warburg’s method, Cwynar records recent cultural memory by indexing our collective search for meaning.
Considering this context, Furness invites you to critically engage with the tools that we use to obtain and archive information, and asks you to consider how we strive to improve, democratize and seek representation in digital spaces—and what this means for the future of digital archives. Furness will reflect on her work in archives, libraries, and information-literacy teaching, including her involvement with Art + Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thons.
The presentation takes place on Floor 2. A Q&A session will follow.
Limited capacity. Register today to secure your seat. Your ticket includes admission. Drop-ins welcome but seating will be limited to ticket holders.
About the Speaker
Dr. Amy Marshall Furness is the Chief Librarian of Victoria University in the University of Toronto.
In her former role at the Art Gallery of Ontario, she built the gallery’s collections of artists’ archives and led the collection development and public programs of the Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives.
Furness has worked for over 20 years at the intersection of art and documentation, and loves to empower people through teaching information literacy.
She has been a Wikipedia editor for over a decade and has participated as a leader and instructor in many Art+Feminism events.
