Data Vitality: Soft Infrastructures and Economies of Knowledge

Data Vitality: Soft Infrastructures and Economies of Knowledge

18.11.2021 – 14.2.2022

What does it mean to be a data-driven university? This exhibition explores the changing role of data in society by combining interdisciplinary perspectives on how data policies are shaping education and research across art, science, business and technology.

As we live in an increasingly data-driven world, how does this impact our practices and attitudes to data at an individual and societal level? Data can be seen as a tool, a utility, a language, a risk and a resource. Questions arise from the real and speculative potential of rendering our bodies, movements, labour, research and environments in data, as machine-readable and reusable. In what ways are we reliant on the capture of data and analytics for solving issues like sustainability in climate change, healthcare, cybersecurity and novel materials? What role does data literacy play in understanding data rights and intellectual property? These questions are addressed through a combination of multidisciplinary interviews and artistic research within the framework of data vitality. It showcases the relationship between human-centric data and the soft infrastructures which connect, intersect and render new dynamics between education, research and society.

The exhibition at Dipoli Gallery creates a visual and material experience of our relationship with data in the context of research, education and society including new artworks informed by research infrastructures such as OtaNano, developments in quantum technology, arts and media practices, operational impacts of master data and digitalisation, data literacy, digital archiving, open data and intellectual property.

The exhibition website which includes further texts, interviews and media is a pilot of Aalto University’s new virtual exhibition platform. The link will be added to the event page as part of the launch on 18 November 2021.

For further information contact Edel O’ Reilly, Curator [email protected]

Data Vitality Contributors

Projects

Aalto Archives & PhotoRobot

Ali Akbar Mehta, Department of Art

Andrea Botero & Markéta Dolejšová, Department of Design

Eerika Jalasaho & Julia Sand, Department of Media

Tyler Liu, Department of Media

Bethany Crawford

Geoff Cox & Winnie Soon

Interviews

Otto Toivanen, Prof. of Microeconomics, Helsinki GSE

Jukka Pekola, Prof. of Quantum Nanophysics, Aalto University

Sabrina Maniscalco, Adjunct Prof. of Quantum Physics, Aalto University

Maria Rehbinder, Senior Legal Counsel, Aalto University

Jaana Sinipuro, Project Director, SITRA

Research & Infrastructures

Martti Rahkila, Master Data & Digitisation, Development Manager, IT

OtaNano Low Temperature Laboratory

OtaNano Nanomicroscopy Center

Design

Olena Mohylna, Graphic Design

Paul Flanders, Exhibition Design

Antti Ikonen, A/V Design

Oskari Martimo, Sound Design

Siili Solutions, Website

Exhibition Support

Print Lab

FabLab

Aalto Takeout

Aalto Web Studios

Dipoli IT

Jenni Perälä, Translation Services

Verna Kuusniemi, Project assistant

Oliver Saarinen, Textile Finishing

Exhibition Research & Coordination

Edel O’ Reilly, Curator, Aalto University