Ecological data for manifesting the entanglement of more-than-human livingness

Abstract

Data in Design and HCI research is often associated with something captured from the world in digital form and transferred to a database. However, the assumption of digitalisation, as well as the intentions and values underlying it, can obscure more nuanced approaches to data, and is becoming increasingly criticised (e.g., through notions of data colonialism, data extractivism, etc.). In this workshop, we invite participants to critically review data concepts and practices that sustain Western industrialised socio-economic systems, considering their ethical, environmental, and ecological implications. In contrast, we will explore data in the entangled ecologies of organisms, matter, and environments, focusing on 'livingness' as a way to reveal embodied, relational, and situated aspects of data. Through wandering and foraging, we will discuss how these aspects of data might help us regain our attentiveness, appreciation, and responsibility towards more-than-human ecologies, and ultimately reframe concepts of data in the world.