Resurrecting data as a phenomenological and spatial object
Symposium:
Title:
- Resurrecting data as a phenomenological and spatial object
Organiser/Presenter(s):
Statement:
There is often an epistemic disconnect between the steps of field studies, laboratory analysis, and data communication in scientific and academic studies. This project addresses this disconnect by creating a sculpture that reveals environmental data as a spectrum and references the environment where it was recorded. Planes is a proposed artwork that displays data from a specific ecological study. The design is for a sculpture that depicts hydrogeochemical data as color on laser-etched panels. An LED and microcontroller system illuminate these fins. The artists’ aesthetic is a response to previously ineffective two-dimensional graphs that held information but failed to communicate on a broad level. Planes intends to reunite the data with the spatial world and connect it with the phenomenological. Rather than the language of mathematical symbolism, this work explores what is possible when information is presented using color. As a sculptural piece, this work goes beyond the world where most data representation resides and innovates the way data is communicated, creating a space for experimentation and variability. This method provides a more meaningful way to communicate the results of a specific scientific study and acts as an exploration of conceptualization methods that can apply to other issues.
