38 CURRENT « INTERACTIVITY Data visualizations increasingly exert explicit or implicit influence over contemporary decision-making across disciplines and contexts. designers such as Victoria Vesna and Lev Manovich speculate on the impact of data aesthetics on visual culture and contemporary art [12, 20, 13, 21, 15]. Recent inquiries into the aesthetics of compu- tational visualization rest largely on foundational work done by Muriel Cooper at the MIT Media Lab, where the Visible Language Workshop investigated the user experience of information from a graphical perspective, creating new computational environments in which data could be experienced in new ways by users [19]. This work influenced later data designers who targeted discovery in the social and hard sciences by using visual metaphors. These include Ben Fry, whose technically accurate interactive visualizations helped scientists analyze the human genome [11]. Fry collaborated with Casey Reas to develop Processing, a visually-based program- ming language that has extended the abilities of information designers. Fernanda Viegas produced influential visualizations of activity on Wikipedia, translating editing activity into topograph- ical landscapes [22]. With few exceptions, the most significant contributions in the aesthetics of visualization over the past two decades have been made by researchers with the ability to merge the disparate disciplines of computer science and design. Cultural implications of data collection, ownership, and visualization The work of conceptual and media artists contains valuable lessons that can be applied to produce a nuanced understanding of the cultural context of data visualization. Contemporary media artists have built on the work of early conceptual artists such as Joseph Beuys and Hans Haacke in innovative ways, applying technically adept visualizations to produce aesthetically compelling artworks that engage with cultural, social, and political issues. Kynaston McShine’s seminal exhibition entitled Information exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1970 was the first of its kind to take the structures of information, and its display and distribution as the subject of artistic inquiry. More recently, tacti- cal media artists Tad Hirsch and Trevor Paglen use visualization techniques to question the treatment of political detainees by the us military and environmental impacts of industrialization. Information artist Ryoji Ikeda’s Test Patterns convert audio signals into objects and landscapes, translating normally abstract data structures into tactile environments that create a visceral aesthetic experience. Similarly, Metahaven, the Amsterdam design studio of Daniel van der Velden and Vinca Kruk, develops unsolicited branding and marketing strategies to interrogate cultural data trends such as Wikileaks, using techniques that range from physical artifacts to web-based visualizations. In some cases, the contributions of media artists extend beyond cultural issues to influence the development of technologies themselves. In notable examples such as Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, an influential innovation lab where early physical interfaces such as the mouse were developed, the creative explorations of artists-in-residence and creative technologists such as Natalie Jeremijenko and Stuart Card played a role in technological development [2]. Collectively, contemporary media artists use data visualization in new and orig- inal ways to create aesthetically compelling, technologically adept artworks that offer valuable perspectives on data visualization and the cultural questions surrounding its use. These works engage viewers and participants in a collective discussion about the role of data, information flows, and structures that increasingly define our society. METHODOLOGY Work at the sEA follows a cycle that includes preliminary research, prototyping virtual platforms and physical artifacts that are shown in public spaces or galleries, and communicating research results. This iterative design process revolves around praxis, which can be described as the joining of making and theory. The practice of ideas through experiential projects is ideally suited for investigating the aesthetic and cultural dimensions of data collection, distribution and display. Material and visual inquiry offer unique insights that augment and extend knowledge gained through analysis and writing. A multivalent approach that combines both material and visual investigations with writing offers contributions that extend beyond scientific analysis and current data science fields. The Studio for Extensive Aesthetics creates exploratory data-driven online platforms and physical art and design instal- lations that yield insights into the technical function and cultural use of data tools and methods. Engaging with reflexive questions, studio research addresses issues such as data ownership and inher- ent bias, as well as the larger cultural implications of living in an age defined by real time streams of information and global sensor networks. CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE Fundamental changes have occurred in visualization in the past two decades due to the rise of processing power coupled with data collection on an unprecedented scale. With the rise of big data, contemporary data visualization increasingly functions as a mass medium, merging visualization with interaction design to influ- ence lives online and off. The significant opportunities as well as danger of misuse make it imperative to study the aesthetic aspects of data visualization. Understanding these questions requires an original approach that draws from disparate disciplines of art, design and computer science in equal measure. The Studio for Extensive Aesthetics produces art works and research that engage specialists and the general public in dialogue about the role of data aesthetics in contemporary culture, rewrit- ing information culture as a collaborative affair. Initiating public dialogue about the role of data aesthetics is especially critical in our contemporary society, which is increasingly defined by data collection, screens and information flows.