ONE AREA OF particular engagement at the SEA is data aesthet-
ics and visualization. Data visualization is a fundamental tool

in advanced societies, which rely on ever-increasing data flows
since the transition to the digital era. Nearly every aspect of
contemporary life is informed by a vast array of data collected by
governments, corporations, scientists and individuals. Massive
amounts of complex data lead to a signal to noise problem: using
data effectively requires interpretative tools that render the data
intelligible to human decision makers. In the past two decades,
data visualization has emerged as an effective method of seeing
meaning within large data sets. “Visualization” refers to repre-
sentation in many forms, from graphs and other visual tools to
sonification or haptic interfaces, but in general visualization helps
make data comprehensible to humans. From mobile applications
that use trends to advise purchasing decisions, to medical devices
that provide real-time predictive assessments of patient conditions,
data visualizations increasingly exert explicit or implicit influ-
ence over contemporary decision-making across disciplines and
contexts.

The SEA engages directly with the methodology of data visual-
ization to question the discipline. An effective data visualization
depends on many related factors, including the attributes of the
data collected, the interpretative algorithms employed, the chosen
method of visualization, and its aesthetic aspects. Among these,
the aesthetic component, which comprises both the visual aspect
of the visualization and the emotional response that it engenders,
has a profound effect on the way data is interpreted by a viewer
and is among the most important to the overall effectiveness of
communication. At the same time, the aesthetic dimension of data
visualization has attracted comparatively little attention to-date
and is one of the least understood by scholars, due in part to the
difficulty of defining the role of aesthetics in conventional terms.
As data visualization becomes a mass medium, understanding its
aesthetic dimension is paramount. The research required to build
knowledge in this area is transdisciplinary by nature, requiring the
ability to merge traditionally disparate fields of computer science
and the arts. Drawing on the fields of art, design, aesthetics, and
computer programming, the SEA contributes to the growing body
of research on this topic.

The shift to the constant use of data in mainstream culture
makes it vital to recognize the power dynamics surrounding collec-
tion, aggregation, ownership, and visualization of large data sets.
Michel Foucault’s assertion that knowledge is power that cannot be
exercised neutrally is reflected by Melvin Kranzberg’s statement
that “technology is neither good nor bad, nor isit neutral” [7, 14].
These perspectives, which have been picked up more recently by
Eli Pariser and Philippe Rekacewicz, and Marian Dork, inform my
understanding of the relationships of power and control surround-
ing data and its use [17, 18, 5]. Institutions with the resources to
house and process massive stores of dynamic data do so from
within particular socio-economic contexts and cannot therefore be
neutral. Through research and artistic projects, the sEA highlights
these issues in contemporary culture.

The SEA exists at the intersection of art, design and scientific
inquiry. It is based on a multifaceted approach that incorporates
traditional scholarly research in collaboration with leading
scientists, and artistic works in collaboration with industry, civic
organizations, and cultural institutions. The sEA explores three
primary topics pertaining to data:

« The role of aesthetic considerations in the function and affect
of data visualization

* The cultural implications of data collection, ownership, and
display

° The use of data-driven creative artworks that engage a wide
public in reflecting on and rewriting information culture as a
collaborative affair

Data visualization is becoming increasingly pervasive and influ-
ential with the rise of big data. Understanding its aesthetic and
cultural implications will be crucial to making sound decisions
about its uses and informing the growing number of people it
affects. The SEA generates knowledge within the academic context,
while experimental creative projects express that knowledge in

a broader social context, engaging the public in dialogue about

the data-driven interfaces that play a major role in contemporary
culture.

CONTEXT

Two primary areas of inquiry inform the work of the sEA: scholar-
ship on data visualization techniques, and the work of conceptual
and media artists and theorists addressing the cultural implica-
tions of data collection, ownership, and display. The majority of
scholarly literature on data visualization addresses its technical
aspects, focusing on areas such as optimization, key problems of
image recognition, and new techniques for visual representation of
large data searches, generally with an aim of increasing efficiency
and effectiveness of data interpretation [6, 3]. This approach has
made valuable contributions to technical knowledge, but it offers
at best an incomplete understanding of data visualization, which
largely ignores its aesthetic and cultural implications. My interest
in this underrepresented area of research led to founding the sEA
to use research and artistic projects to investigate the aesthetics of
data and its cultural implications.

Role of aesthetic considerations in the function and affect
of data visualization

Although small in comparison to efforts dedicated to understanding
efficiency and optimization, a growing body of scholarly literature
and creative work attempts to formulate a rigorous understanding
of the aesthetic considerations of data, drawing from the disciplines
of computation and design. In the past decade, computer scientists
such as Martin Wattenberg and Sheelagh Carpendale have noted
the important role aesthetics and semiotics play in human percep-
tion of data visualizations [23, 4]. Meanwhile, media theorists

such as Alexander Galloway, Warren Sack and Meredith Hoy, and

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