Project Description
What does it mean to “exist” in a data-driven world? In our digital lives, our data represents us to others, particularly entities like the social media platforms and government institutions that we interact with every day but will never meet in person. To them, our identity is defined by our data. To Facebook, I exist when I like, click, and post. To my government, I exist when I vote, pay taxes, or pass by a surveillance camera. But our lives carry on independently of these data points, and even the most invasive location or cookie tracking system can only comprehend slices of my identity.
Data is meant to simplify a complex concept, like a person, so information about it can be quickly stored, evaluated, and predicted upon. By categorizing our identity, data delineates and separates us from each other. By using a financial lens to understand our value, data blinds us to our other dimensions of being. In data we are individually replaceable, interchangeable, and insignificant.
As our data is reflected back to us through targeted ads and content, does this narrow our own self understanding? Do we start to relate to our hashtags and assigned categories and interests? The purpose of this exhibit is to visualize the limitations of data to represent identity, to understand another human being, and to make sense of our unquantifiable self. Data is one framework for understanding the world; let us reflect on the others.
