To live in data is to be incessantly extracted from; to be classified and categorized, statisti-fied, sold and surveilled. Our data is mined and processed for profit, power and political gain. Our clicks, likes and virtual footsteps feed new digital methods of control. In his new hit book Living in Data: A Citizen’s Guide to a Better Information Future, Jer Thorp asks a crucial question of our time: how do we stop passively inhabiting data, and become active citizens of it?
Jer Thorp brings his work as a data artist to bear on an exploration of our current and future relationship with data, transcending facts and figures to find new, more visceral ways to engage with data. Threading a data story through hippo attacks, glaciers, and school gymnasiums; around colossal rice piles and over active minefields, Living in Data keeps humanity front and center. Thorp reminds us that the future of data is still wide open; that there are stories to be told about how data can be used, and by whom.
Living in Data not only redefines what data is, but re-imagines how it might be truly public, who gets to speak its language, and how, using its power, new institutions and spaces might be created to serve individuals and communities.
Living in Data: A Citizen’s Guide to a Better Information Future is available everywhere you buy books.
Looking for a speaker to help examine our ongoing dynamic with the data that defines us? Find out how to book Jer Thorp by contacting The Lavin Agency today.
