[-empyre-] Data Visualization and Decelerationist Aesthetics

[Annina Ruest]

> On Jul 11, 2016, at 12:43 PM, Katherine Behar <kb at katherinebehar.com> wrote:
> 	*Here I wonder, how does this fit with Catherine’s distinction between dat vis critique and generative data vis? I think all data visualization is generative, and I’m concerned about that because I feel that we don’t need *more* of anything right now; if I may use the royal “we” are already producing too much, too quickly, I think.


I would like to offer an example of generative feminist data visualization that I cannot get enough of and explain why I think it’s so awesome in all it’s generative data-visualization-producing glory:   I consider the Gallery Tally Project (directed by Micol Hebron) http://gallerytally.tumblr.com/ to be a generative feminist data visualization project. Micol started counting how many women/men were represented by commercial galleries in specific cities and asked people to make posters using the data for group exhibitions online and offline. I would argue that Micol created an algorithm that produces a wealth of data and feminist visualizations through crowd-sourcing creating absolutely indispensable results. I wish that there were even more of an overproduction feminist data of the kind that Gallery Tally produces. I also think that Gallery Tally is a great model for showing that we are not just at the mercy of algorithms producing terrifying racist data (such as the results described  in the NYT article on AI that Catherine linked [1])  but that we can influence what kind of data is being produced by insisting that intersectional feminism is indispensable to any kind of algorithmic pursuit: In many tech-centric departments (CS, Engineering), the humanities are treated as a sideshow but they really are essential to tech production more than ever. 


Annina 

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opinion/sunday/artificial-intelligences-white-guy-problem.html?_r=0