Opening October 11, 6-8pm
Dates: 12 – 27 October, 10am to 5pm.
Location: University of Brighton, Edward St, 1st floor gallery
Data is arguably the most ubiquitous material of the 21st century and has been described as the oil of the digital economy. It is currency and tool, knowledge and power. Vast information systems guide and ease our lives, offering the promise of better decision-making in business and society, better clinical diagnoses and aiding our transit through the places we live, work and visit. These innovations are often forged in the nexus of creativity and technology: the ‘fuse’ effect that has helped Brighton to be an internationally-recognised creative cluster.
In our increasingly digitally connected world, it is estimated that we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day (a quintillion = 1 followed by 30 0s)[1]. In the UK there are 48 million internet users, and the average British person spends an average of 3.25 hours per day on their smartphones.[2] The volumes of data created through these interactions sustain millions of enterprises – large and small – who generate new products, services and experiences in response. Their success is built on how effectively they can tailor their services through the direct interface with people’s desires that technology affords. In order to do this effectively, they need to know not just what the data is, but what it can do for human beings. Cultural approaches can help us find meaning and stories in this sea of data. When creativity, empathy and imagination are applied to data, we can better imagine the future and open a window onto the past, using shared human history to amplify the potential social value, alongside the economic.
Like oil, the collection, distribution and application of data is not unproblematic. Data mining is pervasive and often invisible. Artificial Intelligences trained on poor data can reinforce socio-economic biases and inequalities; impinge on our personal privacy and collective freedom, agency and action. It is often owned and sold by hugely powerful technology companies operating without adequate regulation in a climate of fast-changing complexity that is beyond the understanding of most lawmakers. Digital engagement with the world is the new normal, but it is difficult to understand how the underlying systems work. The work of artists and storytellers can add a nuanced vision and voice to the exploration and revelation of the systems that frame the digital world.
Desire Lines is an exhibition and events programme co-curated by Laurence Hill (BDF) and Donna Close (UoB) in association with Lighthouse.
Taking data as a starting point and thinking about travel, movement and mapping, the exhibition explores the use of transport data to make visible hidden infrastructures. It explores data as material and data as a portal into other worlds either real or imagined. It investigates how data maps or moves people through space and the very human need for desire lines, those paths made by people unwilling to be guided by architects and the planners of ‘smart’ cities.
The exhibition and events programme explores how artists and creative practice working with technology can unlock innovation to produce new creative products and experiences that have value and impact.
Donna Close – September 2019
