Detourning Data

A defining characteristic of today is the ubiquity of pervasive regimes of data-capture that render almost all aspects of the everyday as data. These data form what has been described as the data revolution (Kitchin), transforming governance and service delivery and, of course, surveillance by governments and corporations. The economies of data are taking myriad forms; from user-data trading markets, to pervasive advertising and militarized-data-intelligence firms like Palantir. In monetary terms these markets are estimated to be worth over $17b and growing at 7 times the rate of ICTs (source:IDC), with what can be expected to be a commensurate growth in dark data economies.

Data is truly the oil of the 21st century, but like its predecessor intellectual property, it is an emergent phenomena vulnerable to detournement, disruption and exploits at multiple levels. This paper seeks to explore these detournements, particularly those under the rubric of critical art practices. Data is a pharmakon, on one hand driving panoptical economies of surveillance, yet on the other exposing capitalism to scrutiny and sousveillance in unexpected ways. This paper seeks to construct what counter-data practices might look like through the lens of data-art. From critical data work by Hans Haacke, Mark Lombardi and Josh On to contemporary data-hacktivism (Cirio), glitch-data aesthetics (Ikeda, Temkin) to locative data works that trace the actions of the financial crisis (McGarrigle).