Published July 3, 2022 | Version v1
Conference paper Open

Investigating materiality for a renewed focus on data practice through design

Description

This paper attempts to question reductionist processes of data science that help sustain digital economies and proposes a new perspective for data practice through design. It follows recent discussions about the materiality of data in design and proposes a new notion of data materiality that unfolds its ethical and ecological aspects from a philosophical point of view. This is presented as an opportunity to envision how data can be enacted as data practice within a system. We provide an example that illustrates different kinds of data and data practices, and how ethical and ecological challenges can emerge in a system. We show how systemic challenges can be alleviated within this new notion of data, demonstrating why recovering data materiality is crucial for an ecological future. We finally argue that designers play a significant role in this context, producing practical examples that extend theoretical discussions on data materiality.  

Notes

general public, scientific community, industry, civil society, policy makers

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Investigating materiality for a renewed focus on data design prac (3).pdf

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Additional details

Funding

European Commission
DCODE – Fundamentals of Design Competence for Our Digital Future 955990