Doing Data
2022
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Doing Data is a series of experimental sculptures which draw parallels between creative practice and data-driven processes, using one as a way of thinking about the other. This analogy is informed by my experience as a data analyst. I made the work as part of Creative Informatics' Creative Horizons Project.
Data is an abstraction. Categories are created to classify it, to make sense of it. These categories, in turn, cause gaps and outliers which are seen as problems to correct, or to be erased. Through making, I wanted to reframe gaps as space for reconfiguration and new approaches.
I made the sculptures from fragments, things labelled ‘offcuts and remnants’ in the database of all of the things in my studio. (explore the database at https://bitparts.net). I allocated the things to groups using a randomiser. My making strategies were devised as ways of rethinking gaps; like add something, recognise divergence, disassemble and adjust.
Each sculpture is accompanied by a datasheet that offers a kind of transparency. It describes materials and strategies used, and unforeseen elements which inevitably find their way in.
The supports for the works point to an underlying question of my project: should the thing conform to the structure, or should the structure adapt to the thing?
Exhibited at Inspace, Edinburgh, in Creative Informatics’ Creative Horizon 4 project 'There be Dragons', curated by Mark Daniels.