On Wednesday 11th of March from 19:00 to 21:30 Netwerk Democratie and Framer Framed host an event by the project Plotting Data.
Plotting Data was a series of workshops held by Cristina Cochior & Ruben van de Ven in 2019, which explored the biases and tensions within datasets that underlie systems for automated decision making. Discussions, presentations and performances fed into the creation of digital interfaces that emphasise the inherently performative characteristics of datasets.
Algorithmic models learn to distinguish patterns and make predictions by attempting to imitate existing structures in vast collections of data. In the process of creating these datasets, conflict and ambiguity are omitted in favour of turning the world into its computable double. How do we bring forth narratives that make other interpretations possible?
This final event marks the end of this project and the release of the Acts of Collection and Omission digital publication. Two tables will be hosted by invited artists Julie Boschat Thorez & Sami Hammana and Nicolas Malevé, while the third table will give an overview of the publication.
This event is free and in English. Please register via Eventbrite.
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• Ruben van de Ven & Cristina Cochior •
As media artist, Ruben van de Ven (NL) is intrigued by the conjunction of cognitive procedures and ambiguous experiences. With his research on quantification of emotions he examines how humanistic concepts are digitized and meanwhile transformed. The individual becomes both subject of and input into the machine learning process. This reciprocal relation between the algorithm and the individual is central to Ruben’s most recent work.
Cristina Cochior (RO) is a researcher and designer focused on structures of knowledge co-production, situated software practices, politics of automation and collective publishing. A recurrent theme in her work is the sociality of digital collections, in the form of archives, datasets or databases. She currently resides in Rotterdam, where she is part of the everyday technology space Varia.
• Sami Hammana & Julie Boschat Thorez •
Sami Hammana (NL) is a researcher, writer and designer. Currently his work is mainly focused on developments within financial speculation and climate change. His critical outlook regarding social-design generates a paradoxical position called ‘Anti-social design’, which aims to functionally appropriate commercial resources pre-existent within social-issues. Cross-disciplinary collaborations and future-oriented projects are returning methodological components of his work. Sami holds a BA Honours in Product Design from the Willem de Kooning Academie and a MA in Research Architecture at the department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths University of London.
Julie Boschat Thorez (FR) is an artist and researcher whose work focuses on knowledge organisation systems and the stories which can be extracted from them. She primarily investigates archives, collections, datasets, and other types of ensembles, with an interest for variability, circulation, community and access. Her practice materializes in installations, performed lectures, printed matter or online interfaces. Julie has been trained in Fine Arts at the ERG in Brussels and Media Design at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam.
• Nicolas Malevé •
Nicolas Malevé is a visual artist, computer programmer and data activist who lives and works between Brussels and London. Nicolas is currently working on a Phd thesis on the algorithms of vision at the London South Bank University. He is a member of Constant and the Scandinavian Institute for Computational Vandalism. In the Active Archives project, with Michael Murtaugh, he is experimenting with techniques to engage with large collections of visual materials and explore different ways to navigate and question them.
