In a world increasingly focused on data, how can we understand and relate to abstract datasets, and the stories they tell?
In this performance about performances, Walker Smith and Jordan Wirfs-Brock will guide you through what they term Data Performances, a newly evolving genre that extends data storytelling into immersive, participatory experiences. We live in a world of data, constantly bombarded by data streams that we not only want to understand, but also relate to on a deep, human level. How can we transform data into inspiring stories and share those with audiences in immersive, participatory ways?
Data Performances leverage nontraditional, multisensory representations such as sonification, visceralization, and physicalization, allowing audiences to experience data through sound, physical interaction, and other sensory modalities. Drawing from a broad range of disciplines and performance/communication styles—including music, theater, podcasts, teaching, guided meditations, TED Talks, performance art, and science communication — Data Performances create participatory experiences emphasizing the social, interpersonal, and experiential aspects of data communication.
The emergence of AI tools gives us an opportunity to reflect on – and embrace – our own humanity, our relationship to computers and large datasets, and how we can use our human capacities to understand data. This year’s show is guided by the following questions:
How can we use performance to understand the underlying data behind AI models?
How will AI tools change the way we relate to performance – how we do it, how we practice, even how we might co-perform with technology?
How is the algorithmic curation/generation of content affecting the way we consume and relate to information, as well as misinformation?
After discovering general principles of Data Performances and experiencing examples of works by the show’s authors and others in related fields, STEAM Scholars will walk away with specific techniques that they can use to create their own data performances. Beyond inspiring future “data performers,” this experience aims more broadly to inspire the next generation of data storytellers, equipping them with the tools to communicate complex information in captivating and memorable ways and foster a shared, social connection to information.
Data does not speak for itself – and it certainly doesn’t perform itself. How could you take data from an issue that you are interested in and create an immersive, participatory data performance to communicate your ideas?