As put by Pablo Picasso, “Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” We can see the products of knowledge organization work, systems such as classifications and ontologies, in much the same way: contrived, abstracted and simplified versions of reality designed to quickly tell us something truthful. What communities choose to represent of their knowledge, as opposed to what remains obscured or omitted, is a crucial area of inquiry in information science, the technical and ethical importance of which has only increased given emerging technological developments such as linked data and AI.
