In February 2023, we have published a chapter in the book “Situated Data Inquiries in Algorithmic Culture”, which is a collection of essays on the impacts of data and algorithms around us.

The chapter is open access and you can donwload it here.

Interested in the abstract?

In this chapter, we discuss a speculative and participatory “media architecture” installation that engages people with the potential impacts of data through speculative future images of the datafied city. The installation was originally conceived as a physical combination of digital media technologies and architectural form—a “media architecture”—that was to be situated in a particular urban setting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it was produced and tested for an online workshop. It is centered on “design frictions” (Forlano and Mathew, 2014) and processes of controversing (Baibarac-Duignan and de Lange, 2021). Instead of smoothing out tensions through “neutral” data visualizations, controversing centers on opening avenues for meaningful participation around frictions and controversies that arise from the datafication of urban life. The installation represents an instance of how processes of controversing may unfold through digital interfaces. Here, we explore its performative potential to “interface” abstract dimensions of datafication, “translate” them into collective issues of concern, and spark imagination around (un)desirable dataf ied urban futures.

Published in: Es, K. van & N. Verhoef f (eds.), Situating Data: Inquiries in Algorithmic Culture. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023 doi 10.5117/9789463722971_ch03