The DIZH-Structure Public Data Lab aims to record the complexity of social life in the canton of Zurich more thoroughly and provide an evidence-based foundation for policymaking and political decisions. The PDL also promotes the negotiation of data's increasingly influential role in steering social developments.
The artistic flagship project focuses on the cultural, aesthetic, and relational dimensions of data, as well as on interfaces with the public and the creation of diverse spaces for negotiation. IfCAR leads and coordinates the artistic and design-oriented part of the PDL, which is shaped by the specific approaches and interests of the members of the ZHdK core group.
During the current exploration phase, the ZHdK core group is developing and implementing activities and projects based on four closely interlinked perspectives that stem from fundamental observations:
- Data, knowledge, power
- Datafication and its limits
- Data and diverse forms of knowledge
- Data, infrastructure, care
Recent digitalization and technological innovations have strengthened the ability to quantitatively record social life and developments. At the same time, public opinion on statistical indicators and data is becoming increasingly polarized. While these are considered a neutral basis for political decisions, the pandemic has made it clear that not all members of society see themselves represented in the data. In addition to an international movement that generally questions scientific findings, various individuals and communities are drawing attention to the fact that their realities are not adequately reflected in data collected on social life. Also from historical and theoretical perspectives, it can be argued that official statistics are not only a basis for knowledge but also political actors themselves. They influence institutionalized orders, structure social perceptions, legitimize rationales for action, and reproduce structural exclusions.
In addition to concrete power relations, the production of exclusions can be attributed to the epistemic limits of datafication. Statistical and scientific approaches generate measurable, verifiable, and comparable knowledge about society, following the positivist tradition. However, this knowledge system has its limitations when ambiguity and the uncategorizable become apparent, or when subjects and dynamics resist being recorded.
The PDL asks how we can engage productively with these limits of datafication. Can art emerge what official statistics overlook, suppress, or fail to capture? What productive approaches to dealing with fuzziness exist that keep ambiguity open, make gaps visible, and use situated and relational perspectives? What insights into society emerge when the focus is placed on what fundamentally eludes quantitative measurement?
These questions stem from an interest in diverse forms of knowledge and practices that disrupt or complement epistemic routines. Do other forms of perception, such as multisensory and subjective ones, open up alternative narratives and opportunities for participation without calling social science findings into question?
Negotiating various forms of knowledge is particularly important in relation to society's relationship with statistical data. Although data is often collected and evaluated in the public interest, the associated procedures, forms of presentation, and statements are not accessible to all members of society. However, it would be shortsighted to attribute this solely to a lack of education. It can be assumed that, in addition to rational-analytical perspectives, various other perspectives and approaches to the world are widespread in society. These perspectives are rarely addressed or explored, especially in connection with statistical data interfaces for the public.
Such exploration has the potential to create more diverse points of access. With this goal in mind, the PDL focuses on the aesthetic appropriation of statistical data, as well as sensory, embodied, and situational knowledge. How can these forms of knowledge be negotiated, particularly in interface design? How can the tension between rational-analytical data and information processing be made tangible to begin a reflection on which types of knowledge are socially legitimized and which remain hidden?
Forms of appropriation and transformation can include artistic practices that hack data or processes, make "side effects" tangible, or create spaces for resonance. These forms of knowledge differ from standardized, repeatable scientific procedures, and through this discrepancy, it becomes possible to experience how data and indicators are embedded in material, institutional, and social infrastructures, as well as the relationships this creates.
Artistic and creative care practices are also coming into focus, particularly in relation to infrastructure. How can knowledge be generated, shared, and applied in a caring manner? Here, care is understood as an epistemic attitude that emphasizes contextual sensitivity, relationality, and transformativity. Artistic care knowledge practices strengthen alternative narratives and highlight marginalized perspectives. These practices respond to epistemic gaps in official statistics by creating independent spaces of visibility.