Materialising Data: Getting to Grips with Slippery Concepts

Smyth, Michael and Panneels, Inge and McDonald, Caitlin and Helgason, Ingi (2024) Materialising Data: Getting to Grips with Slippery Concepts. In: P/References of Design. Cumulus conference proceedings series, 1 . Cumulus Association, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Budapest, pp. 785-797. ISBN 978-952-7549-02-5

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Abstract

Data is ubiquitous in the 21st century, we voraciously create and consume it, and it can be the driver of innovation and the lens through which we view the world. But data is a slippery, shapeshifting material that can take a myriad of forms which makes it challenging to engage with in a critical manner. This paper explores how design can address the challenge of revealing complex and sometimes hidden relationships with data from the perspective of six individual pieces that have been created as part of two exhibitions. The first project entitled There Be Dragons commissioned five pieces from artists/designers that challenged them to represent data in a way that was meaningful to their lived experience of being a creative practitioner. The five responses sought to untangle personal relationships with data through the application of techniques such as interaction, storytelling, and wayfinding. The Picture Your Poisons piece was created by two of the authors and related to the previous work as it gave form to highly personalised data about cancer treatments through the medium of glass. The paper will reflect on the body of work from the perspectives of the authors as both active agents in shaping the first project and as creators of the second piece. The combination afforded insight into the production of creative work for public exhibition together with the requirements that exhibition places on this process. The subsequent interpretation has identified three emergent themes: performance and participation; rethinking value and representation - making data physical and explicit.

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