The Secret Life of Data - Uncovering the Diverse, Lived, and More-Than-Human Nature of Personal Data

Rosa Van Koningsbruggen, Bart Hengeveld, Eva Hornecker

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    As the datafication of our personal lives increases, researchers have started to critique what we consider as data. Where data are often seen from a reductionist perspective -as neutral numbers and graphs- theory suggests that data are messy, subjective, and pertaining to more than the human alone. They are experienced and lived with, something which is often not accounted for in personal data. To explore what people themselves consider data, sixteen interlocutors participated in a cultural probe study where they visually documented what they considered data in their everyday lives. Our analysis indicates that data can be disciplinary, social, and extend beyond ourselves, incorporating more-than-human aspects. Data are often regarded for entertainment, work, and wellbeing purposes. As interlocutors actively engaged and lived with data, we end the pictorial with a working definition of personal data, which acknowledges people's active roles in their data creation.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationC&C '24
    Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 16th Conference on Creativity & Cognition
    Place of PublicationNew York
    PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
    Pages438-451
    Number of pages14
    ISBN (Electronic)979-8-4007-0485-7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 23 Jun 2024
    Event16th Conference on Creativity and Cognition, C and C 2024 - Chicago, United States
    Duration: 23 Jun 202426 Jun 2024

    Conference

    Conference16th Conference on Creativity and Cognition, C and C 2024
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityChicago
    Period23/06/2426/06/24

    Keywords

    • cultural probe
    • physical data

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