Data Art: From the Aesthetic Conceptualization of

Data to Information Critique

New Media Theories

Research Essay

Ana Crisostomo

Student n. 10397124

04/01/2013

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1. Introduction

The current ubiquity of data populating every aspect of an individual’s digitally connected

existence [1], alongside the computational possibilities of harnessing the same to convert it

into distilled information, has introduced the theme of data as one of the most debated in

recent years in a variety of fields ranging from academia to business, from science to popular

media, and from politics to art.

In this particular essay, the focus is directed to the art world and the role that data plays in

that particular sphere by discussing what is, currently labeled as, “data art” to understand

the features which differentiate data visualization projects from artistic ones besides

investigating possible common themes and methodologies among the latter. If data art can

be affiliated to new media, does it enable, for instance, cognitive and perceptual

transformations [2]? Or does it operate solely on a more conceptual level? If “art attempts to

create new relationships between familiar and as yet unfamiliar data” (Jennings 3), what are

the particular connections that data art potentiates? In an era of excess of data, but often

scarcity of information and meaning [3], what are the alternatives proposed by data art? The

next pages will hopefully provide some (provisory) answers to these questions.

In terms of structure, the first two sections of the essay will briefly examine the concepts and

theories around data, databases and information making also references to knowledge,

meaning, interaction and interface. The following part moves forward to analyze aesthetic

aspects in an attempt to contextualize data art projects within a broader art movement.

The fifth section, prior to the conclusion, considers a selected set of projects as

representative of the diversity existing in the data art universe while illustrating some of the

theoretical arguments presented in previous sections.

[1] In this domain, Galloway refers to the present situation as a “culture of enforced interaction, the

militarization of connectivity” (Galloway, Lovink, Thacker 112).

[2] The theme of new media's potential for cognitive and perceptual transformation is developed by

Jennings in “The Production, Reproduction and Reception of the Work of Art.”

[3] As stated by Dean: “Excesses of information turn into a lack of the information most relevant to the

questions at hand” (Dean 19).

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2. From Data to Databases

One of the elements which have catapulted the current data popularity is the sheer amount

of data captured (reflected in the label “big data” commonly used in multiple spheres) – not

only in terms of breadth, but also depth – and, in many cases, made publicly available. The

terms in which these data can be made available and to whom can, just by itself, provide

discussion material for another parallel essay leading to issues surrounding information

control and power [4]. On a more pragmatic approach to this topic Manovich, for example,

refers to a new data divide as creating three “data classes” in contemporary society which can

be visualized in a classical pyramidal manner: those who create data (the larger group), those

who have the means to collect it (a smaller group), and those who have the expertise to

analyze it (the most restrict category of all) (Manovich, “Trending: The Promises and the

Challenges of Big Social Data”, 11) – a concept which raises several questions on a societal

level.

The potentialities hiding behind a vast set of detailed data produced and accessed mostly in

the period subsequent to the massified use of the internet, can be simultaneously daunting

and exert an unquestionable fascination and curiosity [5]. When referring to financial

systems, for instance, some authors refer to the internet as the source of a “fog of data”

(Terranova, “New Economy, Financialization and Social Production in Web 2.0.” 159) to

highlight the volatility created by the reflexivity processes triggered by the amount of data

being immediately and synchronously available. In the realm of academia, some authors

praise the research opportunities which data affords, declaring that we have already entered

the “post-theoretical age” [6]. Other enthusiastic voices claim more promptly that data

renders outdated many theories of human behavior since “with enough data, the numbers

speak for themselves” [7].

[4] On a more conceptual approach to this matter, it might be relevant to read Postscript on the

Societies of Control by Deleuze and its references to the new “numerical language of control [is] made

of codes that mark access to information, or reject it” (Deleuze 3) and the description of society of

control.

[5] Whitelaw refers a tendency towards data mysticism where “data (…) becomes a reservoir of

potential, a field of the unknown and emergent” (Whitelaw).

[6] As stated by Associate Professor Dan Edelstein in The New York Times article “Digital Keys for

Unlocking the Humanities’ Riches” by Patricia Cohen.

[7] According to Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired, in “The End of Theory: The Data Deluge

Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete.”

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There is no unanimity on the matter, but perhaps most authors would agree on the fact that

what is mostly interesting in the present “big data” wave is not necessarily the size of data,

but the type of data captured and its relational character. According to some, “big data”

allows the combination of “surface data” with “deep data” (Manovich, “Trending: The

Promises and the Challenges of Big Social Data” 2) and the possibility of establishing various

connections between sets of data (Boyd, Crawford 1) unveiling patterns which were

previously not visible. Such patterns might serve as pointers in the path to meaningful

information, but that is not necessarily the case in every occasion as, the same authors point

out, they can equally instigate “the practice of apophenia: seeing patterns where none

actually exist” (Boyd, Crawford 2).

Another aspect which is worth exploring relates to the objective character which is frequently

associated with data as well as a condition of pre-existence: seeing data as an independent

entity which exists beyond and regardless of any (human) intervention. But, as Manovich

writes, “data does not just exist — it has to be generated” (Manovich, “Database as a

Symbolic Form” 7) [8]. Being this the case, it is then adequate to complement this idea with

the one from Bowker stating that: “raw data is both an oxymoron and a bad idea; to the

contrary, data should be cooked with care.”

If one is to consider data as a primary ingredient provided with a certain degree of plasticity,

then further steps are required to produce a final recipe. These steps could be denominated

as the assemblage of data into databases which includes the selection (inclusion and

exclusion) and organization of items into particular structures. Different data organization

models create different types of databases [9]. Additionally, a tool to efficiently explore such

structures is also required and, in most cases, this querying mechanism takes the form of an

algorithm. In most of the web 2.0 platforms (regardless of their, more or less, accentuated

social nature) and even beyond those, there is a symbiotic relationship between both

elements [10].

[8] To complement this idea, Whitelaw adds that “data always comes from somewhere: it is produced

by the process that generates it, and as such it encodes that process, as much as anything else”

(Whitelaw).

[9] As stated by Manovich in the 1998 article on Database as a Symbolic Form (Manovich, “Database

as a Symbolic Form” 1).

[10] According to Manovich “Algorithms and data structures have a symbiotic relationship” (Manovich,

“Database as a Symbolic Form” 6). This is also noted by Fuller and Goffey when writing about one of

the Evil Media stratagems (Know Your Data): “algorithms without data structures are useless” (Fuller,

Goffey 150).

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While the efficiency of the algorithms may convey the notion of machinic objectivity to the

user [11], there are innumerous debates on the workings of these complex mechanisms which

some authors claim to “produce not barometric readings but hieroglyphs” (Gillespie 710) to

highlight the black boxed criteria involved in their processes. In some circumstances, it may

be a matter of intentionally concealing the principles being applied, but in others it is

possibly the pure abstract complexity of the algorithm which does not allow a linear

reconciliation between data and results. As explained by Rieder and Rohle: “certain

techniques imported from the computer sciences may never be understood in the same way

we understand statistical concepts like variance or regression because there no longer is a

'manual' equivalent of the automated approach” (Rieder, Rohle 76).

The referred degree of complexity [12] and level of opacity involved should not stand as an

unsurpassable hurdle in the way of a critical approach on data, databases and information.

The path which carries methods and data from computer sciences to other fields is not

linear. In what concerns computer programming, for instance, Galloway states that “software

is not primarily a verbal narrative or a visual image, even if certainly these latter forms can

be remediated in software” which underlines the primarily functional character of software

instruments (while not denying obfuscation as a technical requirement for successful

execution). The topic of narrative leads to discussions on interface and interactivity since

in recent years “interaction with information devices became a designed experience”

(Manovich, “Information as an Aesthetic Event” 5) so the interface possesses, by default, an

in-built narrative.

Chun is one of the authors who explore the notion of interfaces as “functional analogs to

ideology and its critique” (Chun, Programmed Visions: Software and Memory 59)

emphasizing emotional and cognitive values through the illusion of direct manipulation,

feeling of amplification and engagement provided to the user.

The aspects related to critique as raised by the author are particularly interesting in this data

context as she states “software enables this critique by representing it [the relations between

the action of individual actors and the system as a whole] at a scale—in a microworld—that

we can make sense of” (Chun, “On Software, or the Persistence of Visual Knowledge” 42).

[11] This judgment can be circumscribed under the historical tradition which considers that “machine

processing endows results with a higher epistemological status” (Rieder, Rohle 70).

[12] In terms of complexity, Manovich establishes an inversely proportion relation between databases

and algorithms claiming that “the more complex the data structure of a computer program, the

simpler the algorithm needs to be, and vice versa” (Manovich, “Database as a Symbolic Form” 5).

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However, taking into account that data art projects do not necessarily entail digital interfaces

for the end user in all occasions, these aspects related to interaction and interfaces will not be

developed in depth in this particular essay.

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3. From Databases to Information

Databases position themselves as the intermediate structure between data and

information [13] and the genealogy of the latter concept can be circumscribed to cybernetics

and information theory – in both cases with an early emphasis on the material aspect of the

notion.

In cybernetics (a discipline related to the military arena in its inception), information played

a central role in feedback systems aimed at control through the means of prediction [14].

In information theory (more closely connected to telecommunications engineering),

information became the accurately reproduced signal which stood out from the noise [15].

However, even within those two approaches, information possessed also an abstract nature

and, for that reason, displays what Galloway labeled as “an ambivalent relation to the

material world” (Galloway, Thacker 20) [16].

Some authors claim that such immateriality has actually been amplified by contemporary

technological developments [17] which may sound somehow paradoxical taking into

consideration the origins just described.

Within this abstract domain, a property which is important to refer is the one of meaning as

an element which attributes logic and contextualizes information within a larger intellectual

sphere.

Authors such as Crasson [18] and Baudrillard establish an interesting relationship between

[13] Whitelaw refers to data and information as being “converse, two sides of the same thing: data is the

raw material of information, its substrate; information is the meaning derived from data in a

particular context” (Whitelaw).

[14] The ambition for the devices built initially within the cybernetics field was to “predict the future

actions of an organism not by studying the structure of the organism but by studying the past behavior

of the organism” (Galison, 243).

[15] As stated by Terranova: “(…) in the first half of the twentieth century, information theory is

fundamentally concerned the accurate reproduction of an encoded signal” (Terranova, Network

Culture: Politics for the Information Age 10).

[16] When referring to information, Galloway and Thacker define it as being “both immaterial and

materializing, abstract and concrete, an act and a thing” (Galloway, Thacker 20).

[17] Terranova, for instance, claims that the “immateriality of information has been further amplified

by technical developments that have made possible the instant transmittal and multiple distribution

of any type of information at all” (Terranova, Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age 6).

[18] Crasson defines meaning as “what makes sense, produces no surprises, requires a minimal amount

of information to define its shape” (Terranova, Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age 14).

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the two entities advocating that “information and meaning might be reversely proportional:

the more information the less meaning” (Terranova, Network Culture: Politics for the

Information Age 14) which may then suggest that the current informational society is going

through a crisis of meaning [19].

Such situation potentially undermines the acquisition of knowledge as the accumulation of

relational meaning over time. On this matter, it is interesting to note that some authors

establish a continuum from data to knowledge, including information in between [20], but

without contemplating meaning which might indicate the secondarization of such notion.

On a micro level perspective, the overwhelming amount of information made available via a

multitude of technological platforms can impact the individual on two levels: a sub-

conscious level since, as defended by McLuhan regarding technology, “the effects (…) do not

occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception

steadily and without any resistance” (McLuhan 207), and a conscious level as the individual

is forced to distribute his time and select what to focus on giving rise to, what Terranova

denominates, “the attention economy” where attention becomes not only a commodity, but

also a type of capital (Terranova, “Attention, Economy and the Brain” 2).

Does this fact reinforce the crisis of meaning aforementioned or does it merely suggest a

mutation in its character as it happened in previous historical moments [21]?

If meaning is intersubjective, in opposition to information which is objective, as some

authors claim [22], then it is only natural that it will mutate over time and acquire contours

affecting consequently the creation and maintenance of knowledge.

Having briefly described the notions of data, databases, information, meaning and

knowledge, and some of the theories surrounding the same as a required prelude to a data

art discussion, it is now the moment to move forward to considerations regarding aesthetic

aspects.

[19] The increasing loss of meaning is one of the features attributed to, what Dean refers as,

“communicative capitalism” as described in Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of

Drive.

[20] As a reference, consult the 2007 article by Zins on “Conceptual approaches for defining data,

information, and knowledge”, and the 2009 paper from Chen et al. on “Data, Information, and

Knowledge in Visualization.”

[21] As an example of previous historical moments when a modification of meaning occurred, Dean

refers the example of avant-garde art from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (Dean 90).

[22] On this matter, see the 1995 article “Information and meaning: foundations for an intersubjective

account” by Mingers.

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4. Data Aesthetics and Conceptualism

The necessity of extracting meaning out of a vast amount of data is, in most cases, fulfilled

not through purely textual methods but via graphical visualizations [23]. This is by no means a

contemporary and innovative solution as using illustrations to portray a relatively high

volume of information in a simplified manner is a technique with some centuries [24]. In any

case, the goal has remained fundamentally the same throughout time. As stated by Tufte, a

north-American professor and author considered to be a pioneer in the field of data

visualization, “what is to be sought in designs for the display of information is the clear

portrayal of complexity” (Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information 191).

What differ at this moment in time are the volume and the (potentially) democratic

accessibility to data and tools enabling the production of such visualizations. The minimal

requirements for information visualization to be labeled as such, have been established

by some authors as including the following features: 1) the visualization is based on (non-

visual) data; 2) it produces an image; 3) the result is readable and recognizable (Kosara, 2)

[25].

However, not all of these graphical representations fall under the same category. Some

authors differentiate between infographics and information visualization stating that they

“exist on a continuum” (Cairo) with presentation and exploration in each end respectively. If

a graphical representation allows for low degree of exploration then it would be more

accurately denominated as infographic and vice-versa: if the graphical representation would

demand more involvement from the recipient’s part, then it should be labeled as information

visualization.

[23] On a parallel note, it may be interesting the read Flusser’s view on the invention of, what he labels

as, “technical images” (any image produced by an apparatus) as the answer to the crisis of text and

history in Towards a Philosophy of Photography.

[24] Currently, there is an increased interest in establishing a history of infographics and information

visualization as evidenced by the number of publications and even exhibitions on the matter. As a

reference for the first see Mapping the Nation: History and Cartography in Nineteenth-Century

America by Susan Schulten and Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline by Anthony

Grafton and Daniel Rosenberg; and for the latter “About the history of infographic - An Exhibition of

rare information graphics collectibles” by the Academy of Journalism and Medias (AJM) from

Université de Neuchâtel held between 12 - 16 December 2011.

[25] Tufte proposes more detailed criteria for graphical excellence in the first chapter of The Visual

Display of Quantitative Information but, since the present focus moves beyond the pure realm of

information visualization, those requirements will not be discussed here.

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In a number of fields (such as science, engineering or even journalism), these visualizations

are assessed according to their efficiency: the more information and clearer meaning they are

able to convey to any recipient in a short period of time, the more successful they would be

from a purely utilitarian point of view. In these cases, information visualization complies

with concepts and criteria originated in the intersection between design, statistics and

computer science. As observed by Tufte “To envision information (...) is to work at the

intersection of image, word, number, art.” (Tufte, Envisioning Information 9).

What kinds of shift do these features related to functionality and efficiency suffer when data

– both as subject and as material [26] - moves into the art world?

Some authors state that the understanding of this type of projects within the artistic sphere

is reached through the question of why the textual and numerical should be mapped into the

visual in opposition to how (Sack 1) which can then lead to a discussion on aesthetics. This

approach highlights the function of the senses taking aesthetics as “a field of inquiry, [which]

examines issues of sensation and perception and seeks to understand why something is (…)

emotionally, sensually moving” (Sack 1).

On the crossroads between information and aesthetics, Manovich relies on the specific term

“info-aesthetics” to refer to “various new contemporary cultural practices which can be best

understand as responses to the new priorities of information society: making sense of

information, working with information, producing knowledge from information” (Manovich,

“The Shape of Information” 2).

The author proceeds to question the form that information takes currently, arguing that the

artistic projects dealing with the representation of data and information cannot be

circumscribed under the label of classical art (concerned with human form) or modern art

(concerned with abstract form).

Would these projects be more accurately classified under a new label such as

informationalism (as defined by Castells) [27]? If this would be the case, then what would be

the material form of a movement which deals with highly dynamic and endless immaterial

[26] As noted by Whitelaw: “new media art has in recent years turned towards data as both subject and

material.”

[27] Castells defines informationalism as a “technological paradigm based on the augmentation of the

human capacity of information processing and communication made possible by the revolutions in

microelectronics, software, and genetic engineering” (Castells, 11).

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flows [28]? And how stable could this form be [29]?

Some authors consider “data art” within the conceptual art frame (Sack 4). Emerging in

the late 1960s, the conceptualist movement is based on four basic premises [30]: 1) the art

work is mainly focused on an idea or a concept (rather than a material object), 2) the

distinction between art and language becomes blurred, 3) it entails a critique to the

commercialization of art, 4) it disrupts ownership processes translated into social status and

cultural authority.

The central and predominant role of a concept or idea within the contemporary art scene

appears to be a more general trend as noted by Manovich: “a typical contemporary artist who

was educated in the last two decades is no longer making paintings, or photographs, or video

– instead, s/he is making ‘projects.’ This term appropriately emphasizes that artistic practice

has become about organizing agents and forces around a particular idea, goal, or procedure.

It is no longer about a single person crafting unique objects in a particular media.”

(Manovich, “Don’t Call It Art” 6).

Another discussion on data art initiated by Manovich is the one which explores its

relationship with the sublime. In his 2002 article The Anti-Sublime Ideal in Data Art, the

author claims that data art seems to fail on the representation of a “personal subjective

experience of a person living in a data society” (Manovich, “The Anti-Sublime Ideal in Data

Art” 15) displaying choices which often appear as arbitrary and being partially affiliated with

modern science (in its desire to map the macro and the micro, the infinite and the endless

into manageable visual objects).

Sack, in his article on Aesthetics of Information Visualization, is one of the authors refuting

this idea which subscribes anti-sublime projects mainly to the scientific arena and moves

[28] In an article on “Information and Form”, Manovich defends that information can be translated

into form (albeit a different form than the one assumed in previous artistic movements), but what may

be challenging is how to present the same in the institutionalized art venues such as museums and

galleries without nullifying or restricting its core properties.

[29] On this matter, Sack writes that these visualizations attempt to portray bodies which are at

“constantly at risk due to disk crashes, miniaturization, noisy networks, and, in general,

disappearance. These bodies are under threat of destabilization, dematerialization, and

disembodiment” (Sack 13) which is in tune with Chun’s idea that “the digital, if it is anything, is the

enduring ephemeral” (Chun 95).

[30] As defined in …Isms – Understanding Art by Stephen Little.

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forward to associate some data art projects with the notion of sublime as defined by Kant [31].

In a more practical approach, Kosara establishes the utilitarian and the sublime as the

extremes of a continuum where the pragmatic visualizations would be placed under the first

and artistic visualizations under the latter (Kosara 3). The same author highlights the need to

establish “visualization criticism” as a means to develop the theory and the language which

are largely missing in this specific field (Kosara 4).

On a broader level, one possible methodology proposed to distinguish art from non-art relies

on attention as “attention alters what is attended” (Kaprow 236) as exposed by Fuller in “Art

Methodologies in Media Ecology”. The environment in which projects are contextualized

assumes then a crucial part in, what Fuller labels as, an “attempt to forestall “humans'

propensity to 'inattentional blindness'” (Mack and Rock, 2000) (Fuller, “Art Methodologies

in Media Ecology” 53).

This idea is somehow reminiscent of the concepts of distraction and concentration in relation

to a work of art as formulated by Benjamin. According to the author, these are antagonistic

aspects as “A person who concentrates before a work of art is absorbed by it; he enters into

the work (...). By contrast, the distracted masses absorb the work of art into themselves”

(Benjamin, 40). Such notions stress the role of the environment and the perceptual attitude

towards art in the definition of art itself.

Some of the theories and approaches described above may shed some light into a provisory

set of criteria enabling the identification of data art projects (in opposition to information

visualization works). These requirements for defining a data art project can be summed up as

follows: the primary goal should be to communicate a concept or idea [32] (beyond the

functional visualization of a phenomenon), it should require the engagement of the recipient

[31] In Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime, Kant distinguishes sublime from

beautiful in the following manner: “the sublime must always be great; the beautiful can also be small.

The sublime must be simple; the beautiful can be adorned and ornamented” (Kant 48). The

philosopher further defines three types of sublime: the terrifying, the noble and the splendid sublime.

In his work, Kant critiqued some of Burke’s more radical theories included in A Philosophical Enquiry

into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful published eight years before which defined

the sublime as the strongest emotions a human being could feel, but usually associated with more

negative aspects such as pain and horror (Burke 47).

[32] On this matter, Manovich asserted that “if brilliant computer images are not supported by equally

brilliant cultural ideas, their life span is very limited” (Manovich, “Don’t Call It Art” 10).

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in a non-immediate manner [33] for the concept to be explored and, at least partially,

understood, it should provoke some reaction from the recipient which goes beyond

contemplation [34] (as the visualization does not necessarily need to be visually pleasing as

referred previously when discussing the relationship between data art and the sublime).

[33] This lack of immediacy can be illustrated by Adorno’s saying: “It is self-evident that nothing

concerning art is self-evident.” (Adorno 1).

[34] As Fuller puts it: “Art provides a lightning rod to sensations, a discipline for finding the means to

allow sensation to couple itself with a multiple form of materiality” (Fuller, “Art Methodologies in

Media Ecology” 48).

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5. Analyzing Data Art

In "Art Against Information: Case Studies in Data Practice", Whitelaw analyses several data

art projects and classifies them according non-exclusive categories as discursive devices to

describe their properties and potential goals.

The selected projects were sorted according to their connection to reality: 1) as indexical or

non-indexical and 2) as consonant or dissonant; and their relation to information 3) as

informational, un-informational (holding a neutral, and perhaps uninterested, stance to the

extraction of information) and anti-informational, and either 4) focusing mainly on data or

on information – a set of criteria which originates a myriad of combinations.

These are undoubtedly useful categories to examine different types of projects and provide a

glimpse into their diversified properties, but other typologies of classification are equally

possible and valid depending on the focus at stake. On a more functional approach it would

be possible to classify the projects according to the materiality of the input and the output as

digital or physical or a combination of both. It would be possible to distinguish the projects

according to the data source as the internet or the “outer-internet” (even if many projects

deal with data originated in the web and increasingly in social media platforms).

What follows is a presentation of specific data art projects according to some of the criteria

exposed above to highlight the aspects which appear to be more fruitful for a discussion on

the matter.

5.1 - Beyond Digital: Embracing the Physicality

As described previously, data art projects do not necessarily have a digital output and require

computational interfaces.

In 2011 the Dutch artist Erik Kessels produced an installation with one million printed

photos posted on Flickr during a 24-hour period and dumped through several rooms of the

exhibition space (Foam, Amsterdam). The artist envisioned the feeling of “drowning in

pictures of the experiences of others” [35] and the most visitors felt compelled to randomly

select some photos from the several piles distributed through the space or simply dive into

the pools of imagery extracted from the web platform.

The printed photos had no underlying narrative except for the fact that they had been

uploaded to Flickr during a set period of 24 hours, therefore each photo was no more than a

[35] As described in Foam’s press release: <http://foam.org/press/2011/whatsnext>.

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decontextualized digital residue of someone else’s life. The visitor could then just pass by and

engage with the installation at a macro-level by merely contemplating the physical

dimension of a glimpse of digital activity or he/she could interact with it at a micro-level and

attach an imagined narrative to arbitrary images picked up and thrown to the piles of photos.

However, the sheer amount of images available seriously hampers the propensity for genuine

engagement with individual items since the visitor ends up extracting “sameness even from

what is unique” as described by Benjamin in his writings on the technological reproducibility

of art works.

The goal of the installation seems to be dual: on one hand the physical illustration of the

notion of informational space as an immersive area, a “field of displacements, mutations and

movements that do not support the actions of a subject, but decompose it, recompose it and

carry it along” (Terranova, Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age 37); and on

the other hand the representation of the progressive erosion of the boundaries between

private and public information [36] – in this case in the shape of memories [37].

Another project translating data into a physical output is Invisible Airs (2011) by Ioha

described as “an investigation of Power, Governance and Data informed by the expenditure

database of Bristol City Council” [38]. Exploring several aspects of political and social nature,

the project included the creation and public presentation of five pneumatic contraptions

(which Graham Harwood defines as “where the technical and the imaginary overlap”) : the

older people pneumatic floor polisher , the public expenditure riding machine, the open data

book stabber, the expenditure Filled Potato Cannon and the expenditure Filled Spud Gun.

The title of the project illustrates the analogy between air and data as two ubiquitous entities

crucial in life maintenance and yet invisible to all. By materializing data in an uncommon

manner – in this case, converting the City Council’s expenditure into proportional air

pressure feeding each one of the contraptions in a specific manner - the artists hoped to

engage people with data in ways they would not normally understand.

In an attempt to increase political transparency, several governmental institutions in the UK

made their data publicly available. What the artists discovered while preparing the material

for their project, was that open data was not synonym to providing access to all data

[36] This idea is illustrated by the following Dean’s statement: “our participation in social networks

relies on the supposition that we expose but are not exposed, that we are unique but ultimately

indistinguishable” (Dean 66).

[37] See the BBC article “Artist Erik Kessels unveils 24 hour photo installation”

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15756616>.

[38] As described in <http://yoha.co.uk/invisible>.

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available [39] which undermines the concept and the goal of open data from the start.

However, executing “dataset forensics” (examining which data are missing from the publicly

available database and uncover connections between different sets) requires an investment

in terms of time and energy that most citizens are not willing to make. If increasingly more

institutions make their data public, could this trend eventually lead to diminished public

vigilance as citizens become overwhelmed by the volume of data while simultaneously being

devoid of means to extract meaningful information out of it?

As advocated by Dean: “All the data in the world – as if such a fantasy of static completion

were even possible – are useless without a question to cut through and organize them” (Dean

94).

When staging the contraptions and inviting the public to experience the actions produced by

them (as a result of expenditure data feeding), the artists concluded that the most impactful

interventions were the ones where the public could physically feel, in their bodies, the effects

of data [40] which stresses the importance of data art as moving “towards immersion and

sensation; it emphasizes openness and intuition, rather than the extraction of value or

meaning” (Whitelaw).

5.2 - The I, the You and the Us in Web Data

One of the properties of data art is its ability to map macro and micro phenomena and

respective connections and reflect the same into a scale that human perception and cognition

are able to grasp (Manovich, “The Anti-Sublime Ideal in Data Art” 11).

Our participation on social media platforms and use of web services enables the collection of

personal information beyond the realm of standard demographics to an extent that “it is as if

the inner workings of private worlds have been pried open because their inputs and outputs

have become thoroughly traceable” (Latour 2).

In the interactive installation I Want You To Want Me by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar

commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art for their "Design and the Elastic Mind" 2008

exhibition [41], the artists worked with real-time data captured from dating sites focusing on

textual elements which provided information on who is the user is and what is he/she

looking for.

The project has an indexical nature and “aims to be a mirror, in which people see reflections

[39] See <http://yoha.co.uk/expenditure>.

[40] See <http://yoha.co.uk/ia_documentary>.

[41] See <http://www.iwantyoutowantme.org/>.

16

of themselves as they glimpse the lives of others” (Harris, Kamvar, 2008).

In this particular case, the “database became the site to derive the other” (Rogers 32) on the

most personal level. As the artists describe it, the personal profiles work as “modern

messages in a bottle” as it remains unclear if someone will read a profile and, if so, when and

who will that person be.

Databases and digital interfaces offer contemporary functionalities to improve the classical

role of the ocean as a metaphorical carrier of the message and fine-tune the delivery to

adequate recipients, but the mystic associated to the imagery of a message in a bottle might

have trouble finding an equivalent in a multitude of ever-changing database entries. Yet, the

theoretical exhaustiveness and potential relationality of databases holds the promise that

what we are looking for is always within reach via technological means.

Once again, the simultaneous exploration of the micro and macro is allowed as the visitor

can focus on an individual profile or examine general trends regarding most popular first

dates, turn-ons, desires, self-descriptions and interests through the five formal movements

offered in the interactive interface: Who I Am, What I Want, Snippets, Matchmaker, and

Breakdowns.

Through the individual snippets and the collective relational movements, the project

explores the search for love, but also the search for self as the artists consider the

information contained in dating sites as a “fertile ground to build a mosaic of humanity” [42].

5.3 - Data as a Labor Icon

The Sheep Market [43], a 2006 thesis project by Aaron Koblin, takes interaction to a

collaborative level and, inspired by the concept and process of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

[44], requested users to perform a predetermined task in exchange for a small amount of

money ($USD 0.02). In this particular case, the task consisted in drawing one sheep and the

requested task was not, by any means, random as the selected animal aimed at reflecting

crucial social, cultural and economic moments in human history using sheep as a symbol [45].

The artist gathered 10.000 submissions forming a massive database of human drawings

[42] See <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZUaXDm4qik>.

[43] The official website of the project is <http://www.thesheepmarket.com/>.

[44] For additional information on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, visit

<https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome>.

[45] The contextualization of the sheep choice is provided at length in Section 2.1 – Elements of

sheepology, see: <http://www.aaronkoblin.com/work/thesheepmarket/thesheepmarket.doc>.

17

which were presented both offline (in five different exhibitions) and online (in the official

website).

Behind an apparent simplicity, the project ponders over the notion of post-industrialized

labor in a globalized digital economy and refers to aspects such as exploitation and creativity.

As stated by the artist, the objective was to “cast a light on the human role of creativity

expressed by workers in the system, while explicitly calling attention to the massive and

insignificant role each plays as part of a whole” (Koblin 8).

Some of the ideas explored seem to resonate with Terranova’s theories of free labor in the

context of this new economy and the voluntary channeling of collective cultural labor into

capitalist practices (Terranova, Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age 80), but

in this experiment the artist seems to move one step further. While in free labor practices the

activities undertaken are in many cases not faced as work [46] and not remunerated in the

standardized manner (through an agreed payment), in The Sheep Market the users provided

their contribution as acknowledged remunerated labor and did not necessarily derive any

pleasure or meaning from it. If concerning free labor, the author stresses “voluntary

channeling” over “exploitation”, in this particular experiment it is difficult to circumvent that

notion from the starting point. Interestingly, the feeling of exploitation seems to only reach

the participants when the artist decides to publicly sell the fruit of their labor which indicates

that most individuals are not averse to this type of alienation processes as long as they feel

they receive “their fair share”.

In this particular case, the database became a symbol of human labor exploitation in a digital

economy and its updated capitalist modes of production.

[46] As a consequence of the “blurred territory between production and consumption, work and

cultural expression” (Terranova, Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age 75).

18

6. Data Art as Info-Critique

In a period of data ubiquity, information visualization seeks to illustrate selected sets of data

and particular connections between them in order to produce useful and graspable

information (either in a ready-made format or requiring partial processing from the

recipient’s part). Through means of software, “the invisible whole emerges as a thing, as

something in its own right, and users emerge as mapping subjects” (Chun Programmed

Visions: Software and Memory 71).

While reflecting a “contemporary worldview informed by data excess; ungraspable quantity,

wide distribution, mobility, heterogeneity, flux” (Whitelaw 12), data art moves beyond the

functional role of illustration and, in opposition to data visualization, does not have as an

ultimate goal the creation of information. In fact, most projects in this area could be

classified under an info-critique label [47] as they deal with data and databases – both as

material and object – to expose previously unexplored properties of the same in connection

with social, cultural, financial or political aspects without aiming at the standard notion of

information [48].

In this sense, data art ruptures what is the apparent linear linkage between data and

information and populates the resulting fissures exploring omissions and proposing new

relationships and perspectives which, in many cases, originate parallel versions of alternative

meaning [49].

[47] Whitelaw advocates that data art resists information, but even when the artist makes the voluntary

and explicit effort to conceal or annihilate information, this always leaks through data so the artist’s

role would be to acknowledge this “impurity” of the material.

[48] Some projects display a more immediate and direct stance on their critique to the overwhelming

number of information visualization projects which widely circulate in a variety of areas on the most

diverse topics by completely disrupting the connection between data, information and graphics. These

are two examples of pieces which could be classified under the info-critique label: Nonsensical

Infographics (2009) by Chad Hagen – see <http://www.chadhagen.com/Nonsensical-Infographics>

and read <http://www.20x200.com/email/edition-announcement-196-chad-hagen.html>; and

Getting Lost (2012) by Marco Bagni – see <https://vimeo.com/37031074> and read

<http://www.thefunctionalart.com/2012/10/the-dysfunctional-art.html>.

[49] This idea of exploring the data’s vast potential can be partially reminiscent of Everett’s notion of

multiverse as composed of a quantum superposition of very many, possibly even non-innumerably

infinitely many, increasingly divergent, non-communicating parallel universes or quantum worlds.

19

Data art does not demonize disorder [50], but does not necessarily glorify it either – the focus

is on repurposing data to emphasize narratives invisible through the classical informational

patterns regardless of their format.

Possibly the most fundamental role of data art is to question information indexicality as we

currently know it and the cognitive structures it demands. As Chun puts it: “could it be that

rather than resort to maps, we need to immerse ourselves in networked flows - time-based

movements that both underlie and frustrate maps?” (Chun, Programmed Visions: Software

and Memory 75).

However, Chun’s suggestion entails a somehow radical approach and an intermediate

standpoint might prove to be more reasonable and, eventually, more fruitful. If one can only

derive meaning from what is partially new and partially familiar (Terranova, Network

Culture: Politics for the Information Age 14) and data art is not averse to meaning (as an

distinct entity from information), then a certain degree of indexicality (regardless of how

minimal) which enables a direct correspondence to reality in a standard manner might be

required in data art projects in order not to alienate the public, but instead truly engage them

in the exploration of alternative meanings deriving from data [51]. While not being totally

disruptive towards the mapping process and respective indexicality, such an approach does

not undermine the role of data art as art either as it leaves plenty of space for exploration

towards different directions having data as a vehicle.

If information visualization aims at enriching the density of data displays and escaping the

flatlands of the two-dimensional paper and computer screen (Tufte, Envisioning

Information 33), then data art should perhaps focus on deflating datasets and creating

alternative landscapes.

[50] As it was the case with cybernetics which “made an angel of control and a devil of disorder”

(Galison 40).

[51] In one of the data art projects referred in section 5.1 (Invisible Airs), the artists concluded that the

public was not able to engage with the most conceptual contraptions which might reinforce this idea

that a certain degree of indexicality through the means of the traditional mapping process is still a

requirement for the extraction of meaning from data art projects.

20

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