[-empyre-] Data Visualization and Decelerationist Aesthetics

[kanarinka]

Another piece in a similar vein is A Sort of Joy (Thousands of Exhausted
Things) by the Office of Creative Research and Elevator Repair Service
Theater where the groups sorted the entire MOMA archive by author name and
then proceed to read the names as performance art. Men read men's names and
women read women's. Sorted in this way, the starkest thing that emerges
from the metadata is the pervasive anglo-ness/Western-ness ("John",
"Michael", etc) and maleness of the archive.

https://vimeo.com/133815147

Catherine


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kanarinka at ikatun.org   ||   @kanarinka   ||   +1 617 501 2441   ||
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On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 3:57 PM Annina Ruest <arust at syr.edu> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> > 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
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