A Concise Taxonomy for Describing Data as an Art Material

Abstract

How can we describe data when used as an art material? As the number of artists using data in their work increases, so too must our ability to describe the material in a way that is understood by both specialist and general audiences alike. Based on a review of existing vocabularies, glossaries and taxonomies of data, we propose our own concise taxonomy. To conclude, we propose the adoption of this concise taxonomy by artists, critics and curators, and suggest that ongoing refinement of the taxonomy takes place through crowdsourced knowledge sharing on the Web.

From Decoding a Graph to Processing a Multimodal Message: Interacting with data visualisation in the news media

“…In the context of statistics and DV, we might thus say that visual metaphors represent an element of aesthetification, in the sense that they open up a space for engagement and emotion and at the same time room for subjective association and reflection -beyond the control of the text producer (cf. Freeman et al, 2018).…”

Public data art’s potential for digital placemaking

“…In contrast, aesthetic information visualizations are more concerned with presenting a subjective impression of a data set by eliciting a visceral or emotive response from the user (Ramirez Gaviria, 2008: 479). This kind of visualization is seen as an aesthetic practice (Bihanic, 2018;Evers & Nack, 2016;Freeman, Starks, & Sandler, 2018;Li, 2018) because "the process of visualization involves translation of data into visual, symbolic form or pictures" (Corby, 2008, p. 462). Accuracy is therefore not required; it raises questions rather than answering them or, to quote Kosara (2007), to "communicate a concern, rather than to show data" (p. 634).…”

“…Data art, as a practice, is still defining itself, more precisely because of the lack of conceptualization of data as an art material (Freeman et al, 2018). Data is considered as a measuring value that helps us understanding a phenomenon more deeply (Freeman et al, 2018).…”

“…Data art, as a practice, is still defining itself, more precisely because of the lack of conceptualization of data as an art material (Freeman et al, 2018). Data is considered as a measuring value that helps us understanding a phenomenon more deeply (Freeman et al, 2018). It plays a major role in our modern digital world, for its collection has been exponential through social networks and all the devices that allow personal mobile phones, amongst others.…”

“…Data in this type of art is processed through a computer and represented in a visual form that constructs meaning (Legrady & Forbes, 2017). Freeman, Starks & Sandler (2018) propose a taxonomy to describe data in an objective way when used as an art material: its origin, type of license (closed, open or shared, depending on how public or from whom the data can be accessed), relation between time and space, translation type and disclosure of data. The source or origin of data could thus be of biological or environmental nature, often captured by sensors.…”