'Paper'

June 13th

Short papers / Debunking the quantified self through artistic data portraits

Authors: Laia Blasco-Soplon, Pau Alsina, Enric Mor

Work:

Her artistic and academic research focuses on the design, study and criticism of interactive visual tools for experimentation and learning.

Typology:

Theme: Quantified self, qualified self, artistic data visualization, big data, interface criticism

Venue: CCCB

Abstract: Today the “quantified self” is a technical reality that structures datasets of all kinds of interfaces. These interfaces are created with the goal to establish, develop and transform the relationship with the self, the data and the society. In a “datified” world, data visualization challenges traditional representation systems by opening up a wide world of analytical and graphical opportunities. As user interfaces, data visualizations are artificial devices that carry cultural messages in a wide variety of forms and media. Additionally, data visualizations are never neutral mechanisms of data transmission since they affect the messages, providing a model of the world itself, a logical and ideological scheme. The fascination related with big data and the creation of increasingly sophisticated user interfaces pave the way for the proliferation of diverse mutations in the perception of the world and of ourselves. The false neutrality and transparency of quantitative representation of one’s own self is built on the assumption of a closed and measurable self that perceives itself as an entity that can be calibrated, compared and evaluated using numerical parameters. In this context, our research is focused around the implications and mechanisms of the quantified self and its visualization and also about the role that artworks based on data can play.

Biography: Director of the Arts Degree at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and professor of the Multimedia Degree and the Digital Design and Creation Degree at the same university. She is doing his PhD in the UOC’s Doctoral Program in Network and Information Technologies.

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Degree in Graphic Design, Postgraduate in Visual Culture Studies from the University of Barcelona (UB) and Master in Multimedia Applications from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). She is lecturer at UOC but she has also taught at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and in various vocational schools in the field of art and graphic design. She also has extensive professional experience as a graphic designer, illustrator and prepress specialist.

Venue

Montalegre, 5 - 08001 Barcelona

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