We're relying on data to describe the world. Let's do it well.
This workshop explores some ways to bring strong ethics--as well as a genuine curiosity and optimism--to the data we use in our work.
3. I am not a data scientist.
But I use data in my work. I contribute data
about myself to the work of others. And I live,
like most of us here, in a world that is
increasingly mediated by the collection and
interpretation of data sets.
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6. The world always exceeds our efforts at description.
MTA, London Underground, TriMet6
7. All descriptions have a point of view.
Data is no exception.
Mimi Onuoha, Library of Missing Data Sets7
8. Collecting Data
“A museum is an exclusive space that brings some things in
and puts some things out. What’s interesting is we don’t
extend [this understanding] to how we define history, to how
we define data, or data sets.” —Sydette Harry
8 Art + Feminism: Careful with Each Other, Dangerous Together
10. What are the stakes here?
“Algorithms are abstracted from the humans and needs that
created them and there are always humans and needs behind
the algorithms we encounter every day.” —Mimi Onuoha
10 On Algorithmic Bias
11. So, how do we use this tool for good?
How have we ever improved any system we use?
We have to think carefully and listen well.
We have to bring our ethics and our creativity.
And we have to practice.
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12. Dorothea Lange, Library of Congress12
“...any photograph
seems to have a more
innocent, and
therefore more
accurate relation to
reality.”
-Susan Sontag, On Photography
14. A brief manifesto.
Data is a collective resource: we make it collectively
and we should collectively engage in creating its
meaning.
“Any human power can be resisted and changed by
humans.”—Ursula K. Le Guin
14 Speech at the National Book Awards
18. I think there’s a map in Dear Data.
I’m going to draw it in three stops. The routes are all questions.
William Sullivan18
19. Transparency
How would data look if:
We declared our point of view?
We could claim authorship and fully cite our sources?
We could know who is choosing what to look at and for how long?
We could know how they defined what they’re measuring?
We could know how they understand success?
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20. Relationality
How would we use data if:
We considered data science a reciprocal system?
We stopped Data Mining and started Data Exchange?
We worked to be in open conversation with those we’re observing?
We were always also observing ourselves and conveying those
observations?
Data collection and analysis were a form of community building?
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21. Inefficiency
How would data change if:
We cultivated patience with and even a wish for the untidy and
unresolved?
They are the friction that allows us to hold onto the world
as it is. They are also where we have something to learn.
There are no failed experiments.
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25. 25
Step Two: Plan
What are you interested in? Curious about?
What would you like to describe?
Can you use data to ask questions about what you see?
Can you share data that invites questions?
How can you practice transparency, relationality and inefficiency?
Make some notes, experiment a bit, then set your system.
(Remember: no failed experiments)
29. 29
How did it go?
Write down your impressions.
What did you notice?
Did you learn something about the image?
What was difficult? Frustrating?
Did you get surprised?
Did you think your system would be easy or difficult? Did it turn
out that way?