Autographics – design for a self-inscribing world

 I will speak about how designers can draw inspiration from an analog perspective on data and interpretation, shifting the focus from abstract algorithms to material traces and the various manifestations of physical information. Data analysis and digital visualization methods are considered crucial tools for making a difference in today's society. Yet, we find a growing number of examples where citizen scientists, environmental activists, or forensics amateurs use decidedly analog methods for investigating and presenting evidence of pollution, climate change, or disinformation. Their practices emphasize the process of data generation and turn it into a sensory-aesthetic inquiry with profound social and political implications. In the context of such post-digital practices of visualization and evidence construction, I will discuss the idea of autography as a perspective on data generation that attends to processes of self-inscription based on the premise that data are material entities rather than abstract representations.

Bio: I am Associate Professor and Chair of the department of Art + Design at Northeastern University, with a secondary appointment in the school of Public Policy. I received my PhD in Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hold a Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, and a Dipl. Ing. in Architecture from the Technical University Vienna. My current research focuses on environmental information and evidence construction, their material/sensory aspects and social implications. I wrote the award-winning monograph Waste is Information – Infrastructure Legibility and Governance (MIT Press), worked as an advisor to the United Nations and published books on digital public space, accountability technologies and urban informatics.

 

 

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