Symposium explores the application and effects of data

Worried about the role of data in our lives? The Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) and the Flinders University Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts are uniting to present a symposium on creative assessment of data’s application and effects.

The symposium runs from 6–7 July and is an accompaniment to The Data Imaginery: Fears and Fantasies exhibition, which is open to the public at FUMA until 8 July. Organisers say the exhibition radically reimagines data’s meaning, impact and potential.

The two-day symposium, bringing together artists, designers, creative arts researchers and professionals from the film, digital media and data science sectors, will feature a keynote address on 6 July delivered by Tea Uglow, Creative Director of Google Creative Lab in Sydney, who has a strong international profile and is identified amongst Australia’s top 50 female speakers by The Drum.

Uglow, whose work explores the space between technology and the arts and what can happen where they intersect, is celebrated as one of Australia’s #OUT50 LGBTQ Leaders by Deloitte and has been outspoken on prompting the new federal government to strengthen the arts and cultural sector after the ravages of COVID-19.

Uglow’s address will plug into the symposium’s themes of exploring the applications and effects of data, and how we can engage with data in critical, playful, empathetic and empowered ways.

FUMA Director Fiona Salmon is excited that the symposium speakers will bring a global perspective to this critical and timely examination of data’s influence in our daily lives.

“Artistic interpretations are providing fresh ways of helping us understand complex datasets, resulting in heightened inclusivity and more possibility for data’s potential applications in our everyday lives,” said Salmon.

The symposium will also shine a light on the powerful works on display in the exhibition, which surveys data visualisation in contemporary visual art and design practice. It invites audiences to take a closer a look at the production, interpretation and effects of data on our lives, reflecting on what counts as data and questioning how it is harvested, applied and perceived.

Panel sessions presented at Flinders University’s Bedford Park campus on day two of the symposium program will explore the exhibition’s broad themes of climate change, location data and data legacies.

The collection of local, national and international speakers at the symposium will include Yulia Brazauskayte, Silvio Carta, Dameeli Coates, Andrew Gall, Alice Gorman, Natalie Harkin, Geoff Hinchcliffe, Ian McArthur, Amy Prcevich, Elvis Richardson, Aidan Rowlingson, Miranda Samuels, Carly Vickers, Judy Watson, Tali Weinberg, Mitchell Whitelaw and Sean Williams.

Further information and registration for the symposium can be found here: https://www.flinders.edu.au/museum-of-art/the-data-imaginary-symposium.