Data as Culture 3: Data Anthropologies

Data as Culture 3: Data Anthropologies critically positions humans at the centre of emerging data landscapes through artistic exploration. The Open Data Institute offers itself as the focal point of this exploration by hosting a series of artists’ exploration. Thomson & Craighead, in residence between February and June, 2015, will develop a concept for a new artwork, responding to or working with open data. They will work along an open research model, likewise sharing their thinking through a solo exhibition of their existing works at the ODI. Thomson & Craighead’s work explores the ways in which our lives and experiences are mediated by technology. It raises questions about what it means to aggregate and interconnect large bodies of information, inviting reflection on how mechanisms like the World Wide Web, alter, extend and distort our understanding of the world around us. Thomson & Craighead are keen observers of the ways in which people interact with these new spaces. Working with sound, video and sculpture, their materials include found YouTube footage, search terms and extracted texts from individual and corporate contributors to online media