Artists vs data – and art wins

Alarmed, charmed and inspired; a trip to Somerset House’s latest exhibition has changed Dominic Mills’ perspective on Big Data.

Sometimes fate deals you a good hand. When a meeting was cancelled at the last minute two weeks ago, I found myself with a spare hour or two on my hands.

The alternatives:

– To kill time in Café Nero and catch up with e-mails (no, I had already done that between earlier meetings)

– Find a park to sit in and kill time (too cold in February)

– Sit in a comfy chair in Waterstones and read, at random, a book (too far away).

The answer:

Go to The Big Bang Data exhibition at Somerset House.

The benefits are obvious: culture, warmth, intellectual stimulation and, for the self-employed like me, the possibility of setting the entry cost against tax via Dublin and the Cayman Islands (but don’t tell Google or Matt Brittin when he finally works out what he earns).

It’s a popular exhibition, packed with people of all age groups (and possibly a cohort of media/culture students); so popular it’s been extended till 20 March.

What’s it about? Well, it’s a cross between a show-and-tell and an art exhibition, with sociology, science, art and ethics thrown into the mix.

Media digirati may say they won’t learn anything from it (and yes, there’s a section on the use – or misuse – of data by advertisers). They’re probably right, but they may have their minds opened, and experience a visual treat.

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Just as there are different types of data, there are different perspectives on data: the Daily Telegraph sent its arts correspondent to review the show, and he described it as ‘alarming‘; the BBC sent its security correspondent, Gordon Corera.

The show-and-tell takes a historical view by demonstrating, for example, the first steps towards global communication networks at the turn of the 19th century via undersea cables linking Europe with North America and the Far East. You can also see the evolution of data storage tools, from punch cards to reel-to-reel tapes and storage sticks.

Talking of which, there’s a large banner demythologising ‘the cloud’. The term sounds like a benign, friendly space – say a data version of your local café – but is far from it. The banner says: “The cloud is one of the most deceptive metaphors ever coined. Nothing light or intangible lies behind it.”

In fact, as one exhibit shows, ‘the cloud’ comprises a series of sinister-looking, industrial warehouses, almost always in remote locations and apparently unmanned, perhaps apart from armed security guards. Google and Facebook, for example, each have data farms somewhere near the Arctic Circle – for climate reasons, it seems.

I like this debunking: it articulates what always irritates me about glib talk of the cloud. Whenever I meet data scientists who boast “Of course, it’s all in the cloud”, I want to punch them in the face and say “so what?”. As if that is an end and a virtue in itself.

But it is the idea of data in the hands of artists that, for me, the show really comes alive. Artists aren’t like the rest of us. They see and think differently. They challenge our beliefs, and frame issues in surprising ways.

You can always count on them for a bit of perv also: two Spanish artists, Jaime Serra and his wife Francisca, turn their sexual interactions (down to excruciatingly intimate detail) over the course of a year into a abstract, infographic-style, oil on canvas.

Nicholas Felton gathers his personal data to compile an annual report of maps, graphs and stats – looking very much like a corporate publication – of his activities.

Of course, you need some cats too. Owen Mundy, who doubles up as an associate professor of digital media, has mapped all the tagged pictures of cats posted online, down to postcode level, in a work called ‘I know where your cat lives’. Indeed he does: by playing with the map, I found 135 cats within a one-mile radius of where I live.

It’s easy to paint Big Data only as a scary, Big Brotherish phenomenon. At least that’s my default view, obviously the result of seeing so much inept ad targeting on my screens.

One way the exhibition has changed my perspective is to show how, in the right hands, Big Data can also be a force for good. On the whole, ‘the right hands’ means journalists, citizen journalists or activists – which of course may represent the forces of evil to some.

But one of Big Data’s attributes is its power to bring transparency, or to shine a light on the inner workings of authority institutions. ‘Where Does my Money Go‘ by the Daily Bread shows in simple visualisations where our tax pounds go as a proportion of our salaries. If you earn £22,000 a year, for example, £0.94 goes on defence, £0.86 on education and so on. They should do the same for corporate tax revenues.

On a local level, FixMyStreet.com, allows residents to report micro, but nonetheless important issues, such as fly-tipping or local vandalism. Councils can see what they are saying and take appropriate action. I’m going to report a cat infestation.

Go while you can. You may be alarmed, charmed and inspired in equal measure (and get a small tax rebate too).