Soft Data and Common Wares by Afroditi Psarra and Audrey Desjardins
‘Soft Data and Common Wares’ is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the DXARTS Softlab (e-textiles and wearable technology lab run by Afroditi Psarra in DXARTS) and Studio Tilt (interaction design research studio run by Audrey Desjardins in Design), that manifests in the form of a print and web publication probing the connections of working with data-driven approaches and crafting physical artifacts, by examining the intimate spaces of the home and the body, and the assistive and affective technologies they engage with. Both labs are interested in the process of collecting, archiving, and critically transcoding data from the intimate spaces of the home and the body, and the search for meaningful interpretations they use material experimentations and prototyping as techniques to shape social identities and create intellectual and cultural commons. This research project aims to reflect on the hybridizations of bodies, materials and world-building narratives and the dissemination of such research through a printed publication, and an openly-available pdf version of it.
Conceptual axis
Imaginaries of data seem to remain tied to ideas of data as digital, immaterial, big and objective. Information scientists define data abstractly, or technically as “agglomerations of small, discrete signals, represented as 0s and 1s in computer memory” [17]. People have come to understand data as plain and neutral, and so objective and, inevitably, true [8,13], leading to trends where data are used as a path toward self-knowledge in movements like the Quantified Self [30]. Furthermore, data continue to be seen as homogeneous, universal and all encompassing, following new buzzwords like ‘Big Data’ promoting a sense of volume, velocity and high resolution [15] and a belief that data are smooth and easily manipulatable [10].
Data is increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives and our most intimate spaces. Homes can now be filled with always on, always listening, smart cameras and smart speakers. Bodily functions such as heart rate or physical movement can be monitored through smart watches. While data may come with some promise (the promise of self knowledge and self improvement, the promise of security and safety, etc), data also comes with these assumed—and potentially misleading—narratives of precision, perfection and objectivity. In our works at the DXARTS Softlab and Studio Tilt, we confront these narratives. Building on a long standing scholarship in arts, design and Science and Technology Studies (STS), we create artifacts and technologies that embody the idea that data are in fact messy, plural, the result of subjective processes, and local [8,13,17,18].
In the process of unpacking the title of this project we want to refer to several of our practices and the underlying technologies that characterize them:
The term ‘soft’ refers to the field of soft-circuits and e-textiles, fabrics that enable digital components (including small computers), and electronics to be embedded in them. Their applications span from the medical sector, product and interface design, to fashion, architecture, art and performance. Other associated terms include wearable technology, wearables, fashionable technology, or fashion electronics which are smart electronic devices (electronic device with micro-controllers) that are worn close to and/or on the surface of the skin, where they detect, analyze, and transmit information concerning e.g. body signals such as vital signs, and/or ambient data and which allow in some cases immediate biofeedback to the wearer. Wearable devices such as activity trackers are an example of the Internet of Things (IoT). "Things" such as electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity are effectors that enable objects to exchange data through the Internet with a manufacturer, operator, and/or other connected devices, without requiring human intervention. These systems are increasingly ubiquitous in our lives and, when unchallenged, often reinforce existing structures of exclusion and oppression. Theorists like Donna Haraway [11] and Sadie Plant [21] analysed the figure of the Cyborg to reclaim a new wave of feminism that would subvert patriarchal thinking, by creating new origin stories, and reclaim the cyberspace matrix as a way of talking about these new technological bodies as flickers of binary information. Likewise, Kathrine N. Hayles’ Posthumanism [12] challenges the idea that the cultural perception that information and materiality are conceptually distinct and that information is in some sense more essential, more important and more fundamental than materiality, which for an emerging field like electronic textiles, provides a fruitful space for ideas of embodiment and hybridizations of information and materiality to emerge.
These technologies of the body along with other type of soft-circuitry are the primary focus of the research done by the DXARTS Softlab which works with the idea of the body as an interface to perceive phenomena outside of the human scale, such as fractal antennas for electro-magnetic field detection, wearable cosmic radiation detectors [25], or physicalizing satellite communications [23]. But also seeing e-textiles as speculative strings between fact and fiction [22], as ways of embodying our relationship with the natural and built environment [14], as the lens of exploring intimacy and affection [29], and as the means for reimagining gender roles [1]. ‘Soft’ in the context of the Softlab also refers to the idea of crafting, of speculating about an alternative world to the current which is characterized by the hardness and coldness of technology. One that allows for the creation of communities, and the reclaiming of space to explore issues of identity and decolonization.
‘Soft data’ also refers to the data collected through a growing body of smart devices and IoT systems in the context of the home, a site which is inextricably linked to ideas of care and intimacy. While the sensors in IoT devices in the home record ‘hard’ and clean-cut data such as numerical temperature over time, motion described as either present or absent, doors locked or unlocked, lights turned on or off, etc., the work we conduct at Studio Tilt is aiming at softening this data through creative means of interpretation. Moving beyond numerical data logs and dashboards [5], Studio Tilt’s work uses other means of expression to represent data, such as the physicalization of data through ceramics [7] or fading fabric, or the transcoding of data to narratives through stories [4], recipes, or soundscapes. These creative representations of home IoT data use more interpretive, open ended and fluid approaches to allow data to become more engaging and interpretable by humans, taking a step towards tackling issues of legibility of machine learning [16], privacy [31], and surveillance capitalism [32].
Softness at Studio Tilt is also about materials: the design research studio uses easily manipulable materials like paper, cardboard, postcards, sketches, narratives, imaginaries and conceptual ideas in our practice.
‘Wares’ refers to both the concepts of software and hardware, but also to the manufactured artifacts of the home and the body such as bodyware or even tupperware. Both labs engage with the crafting of prototypes that examine the tangible and intangible aspects of proprietary and open-sources products and services, critically inquiring and analyzing their use and relations they create. By associating ‘wares’ and ‘commons’ we aim to discuss these artifacts in relation to the communities they create, but also are in search for how we can creatively use soft, messy and personal data to re-enchant the world [9], to speculate about other ways of being and relating to one another, opening up spaces outside of binaries, and generating projects that can invert the reality of technological solutionism and surveillance-driven capitalism.
‘Common wares’ also connect methodologically with Studio Tilt and the Softlab’s practice. Taking community oriented approaches such as open-hardware [33], co-speculation [6] and participatory design, our practices have demonstrated an interest in broadening who speculates, who might imagine alternative futures, and who can actively participate in the making of our futures. In that sense, common wares are about creating tactics and tools for building community.
Further extending our title of Soft Data and Common Wares, our chosen sites of inquiry are the body and the home. Both sites hold a long and complex gendered history that ties to issues of reproductive labor such as care work, community building and maintenance, emotional and affective health, collective knowledge production and the generation of playful and creative spaces.
Artistic Residencies
Additionally, the project includes two artistic residencies that will take place in Spring 2024 between the two labs that will generate a fruitful dialogue, culminating in the collaboration of students, faculty and residents. The two incoming visiting artists that will spend one month each at the DXARTS Softlab andStudio Tilt are Xiaowei R. Wang - a California based artist, writer, organizer and coder, and Mark Anthony Hernandez Motaghy - a Boston based artist and cultural worker of Mexican and Iranian descent. The two artists were selected through an open call which received an astounding 80 proposals from artists around the globe. The goal is to engage the two visiting artists in conversations with DXARTS and Design students that will feed into a new series of zines that will be publishes in late 2024.
More info will be published about the residencies in upcoming posts.
Acknowledgements
This research project has been made possible through the support of the Collaborative Studio Grant by the Simpson Center for the Humanities received in 2022, and the Kreielsheimer/Jones Large Grant by the University of Washington’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
References
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