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DataNatures

2026-05-08T07:18:57Z

Rena: /* Students */

''Type: ''Project Module

''Lecturer: ''Verena Friedrich

''Credits: ''18 SWS

''Times: ''Tuesday 10:00 - 13:00

''Venue: ''DBL & online

''First meeting: ''October 21, 10:00 @ DBL

'''Description:'''

In the science fiction film Tron (1982), an orange is scanned by a laser beam in order to be transferred into a virtual computer world. At the end of this “Matter Transform Sequence”, the orange has disappeared—its digital image appears on the screen instead. The promise of this fictional technology: the total capture and modeling of the bio-logical world, in order to make it manipulable, controllable, and available at will on a data-logical level.

Some four decades later, the methods and scope of data collection, processing, and storage have developed at a rapid pace. Increasingly large parts of the world and of our everyday lives are being digitized and incorporated into technical infrastructures, to the point that one can speak of a “datafication of everything.” Yet have we really come closer to the techno-utopia of the world’s complete capture?

Does not the sheer abundance of data itself show that certain aspects of the world and of “nature” always remain fleeting—immeasurable, unavailable, and resistant to any form of technical appropriation? Or is this, after all, merely a romantic notion that can no longer stand up to the effectiveness of Big Tech? How do we, as human beings and as artists, engage with the current situation? Can artistic practices open up alternatives to a purely technocratic handling of data?

The seminar investigates these questions from artistic, technical, practical, and theoretical perspectives. Following a general introduction to the topic, we will discuss artistic works and read selected texts in order to critically engage with the increasing quantification and datafication of the world. In practical workshops, we will do statistics with pen and paper and explore basic methods of collecting, ordering, counting, and classifying biological samples. From there, we will trace the path toward today’s computer-based (classification) procedures grounded in machine learning and data-driven research in science. Hovering above all of this is the question of the relationship between materiality and digitality: what continuities persist, and what ruptures emerge?

The aim is to develop independent project ideas and realizations that engage artistically and experimentally with specific aspects of the theme DataNatures.

==== Students ====

* [[Sabah Abouelhadid]]
* [[Timm Albers]]
* [[Seoyeon Lee]]
* [[Olga Molzan]]
* [[Konstantin Schoser]]

==== Materials ====

[[DataNatures – Literature]]

==== Schedule ====

2025-10-28T07:56:19Z

Rena:

Bauer, Thomas. 2024. Die Vereindeutigung der Welt: über den Verlust an Mehrdeutigkeit und Vielfalt. Reclam.

Beer, David. 2018. The Data Gaze: Capitalism, Power and Perception. SAGE.

Bowker, Geoffrey C., und Susan Leigh Star. 2000. Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. The MIT Press.

Bridle, James. 2018. New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future. Verso.

Crawford, Kate. 2021. Atlas of AI: The Real Worlds of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press.

Dantzig, Tobias, und Joseph Mazur. 2007. Number: The Language of Science. Penguin Publishing Group.

D’Ignazio, Catherine, und Lauren F. Klein. 2023. Data Feminism. The MIT Press.

Fischer, Philipp. 2020. Datennaturen: ein Gespräch zwischen Biologie, Kunst, Wissenschaftstheorie und -geschichte. Diaphanes.

Fourcade, Marion. 2022. Zählen, benennen, ordnen: Eine Soziologie des Unterscheidens. Hamburger Edition.

Gitelman, Lisa. 2013. Raw Data Is an Oxymoron. MIT Press.

Gould, Stephen Jay. 1996. The Mismeasure of Man. Revised and Expanded Edition. W. W. Norton & Company.

Latour, Bruno. 2002. Die Hoffnung der Pandora: Untersuchungen zur Wirklichkeit der Wissenschaft. Suhrkamp Verlag.
Darin: Zirkulierende Referenz. Bodenstichproben aus dem Urwald am Amazonas.
[http://people.zhdk.ch/shusha.niederberger/texte/bruno-latour/zirkulierende-referenzen.pdf PDF (de)] | [http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/downloads/53-PANDORA-TOPOFIL-pdf.pdf PDF (en)]

Mainzer, Klaus. 2014. Die Berechnung der Welt: Von der Weltformel zu Big Data. 1st ed. C.H. Beck.

Mau, Steffen. 2017. Das metrische Wir: Über die Quantifizierung des Sozialen. Suhrkamp Verlag.

Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor, und Kenneth Cukier. 2013. Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think. 1. publ. Murray.

O’Neil, Cathy. 2017. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. 1. Aufl. Penguin.

Porter, Theodore M. 2020. Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life. New Edition. Princeton University Press.

Rosa, Hartmut. 2020. Unverfügbarkeit. Suhrkamp Verlag.

Trogemann, Georg. 2014a. Das vermessene Leben. Journal der Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln.
[https://interface.khm.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/KHMjournal_Trogemann.pdf PDF (de)]

Trogemann, Georg. 2014b. Die Fülle des Konkreten am Skelett des Formalen: Über Abstraktion und Konkretisierung im algorithmischen Denken und Tun.
[https://e-publications.khm.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/50 PDF (de)]

Van Dijck, Jose. 2014. Datafication, Dataism and Dataveillance: Big Data between Scientific Paradigm and Ideology. Surveillance & Society 12.
[https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776 Abstract (en)]

2025-10-22T16:31:40Z

Rena:

''Type: ''Project Module

''Lecturer: ''Verena Friedrich

''Credits: ''18 SWS

''Times: ''Tuesday 10:00 - 13:00

''Venue: ''DBL & online

''First meeting: ''October 21, 10:00 @ DBL

'''Description:'''

In the science fiction film Tron (1982), an orange is scanned by a laser beam in order to be transferred into a virtual computer world. At the end of this “Matter Transform Sequence”, the orange has disappeared—its digital image appears on the screen instead. The promise of this fictional technology: the total capture and modeling of the bio-logical world, in order to make it manipulable, controllable, and available at will on a data-logical level.

Some four decades later, the methods and scope of data collection, processing, and storage have developed at a rapid pace. Increasingly large parts of the world and of our everyday lives are being digitized and incorporated into technical infrastructures, to the point that one can speak of a “datafication of everything.” Yet have we really come closer to the techno-utopia of the world’s complete capture?

Does not the sheer abundance of data itself show that certain aspects of the world and of “nature” always remain fleeting—immeasurable, unavailable, and resistant to any form of technical appropriation? Or is this, after all, merely a romantic notion that can no longer stand up to the effectiveness of Big Tech? How do we, as human beings and as artists, engage with the current situation? Can artistic practices open up alternatives to a purely technocratic handling of data?

The seminar investigates these questions from artistic, technical, practical, and theoretical perspectives. Following a general introduction to the topic, we will discuss artistic works and read selected texts in order to critically engage with the increasing quantification and datafication of the world. In practical workshops, we will do statistics with pen and paper and explore basic methods of collecting, ordering, counting, and classifying biological samples. From there, we will trace the path toward today’s computer-based (classification) procedures grounded in machine learning and data-driven research in science. Hovering above all of this is the question of the relationship between materiality and digitality: what continuities persist, and what ruptures emerge?

The aim is to develop independent project ideas and realizations that engage artistically and experimentally with specific aspects of the theme DataNatures.

'''Preliminary schedule: '''

'''Literature list:'''

* Bowker/Star (2000) – Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences
* Bridle, James (2018) – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future
* Crawford, Kate (2021) – Atlas of AI: The Real Worlds of Artificial Intelligence - #ai #classification
* Latour, Bruno – [http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/downloads/53-PANDORA-TOPOFIL-pdf.pdf Circulating Reference] (EN) | Zirkulierende Referenz (DE) - #basics #science #classification #orderofthings
* Mau, Steffen. 2017. Das metrische Wir: Über die Quantifizierung des Sozialen – #self-tracking
* O’Neil, Cathy. 2017. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy - #bigdata #bigtech
* Trogemann, Georg (2014) – [https://interface.khm.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/KHMjournal_Trogemann.pdf Das vermessene Leben] - #basics # statistics #prediction

DataNatures

2025-10-22T16:28:45Z

Rena:

''Type: ''Project Module

''Lecturer: ''Verena Friedrich

''Credits: ''18 SWS

''Times: ''Tuesday 10:00 - 13:00

''Venue: ''DBL & online

''First meeting: ''October 21, 10:00 @ DBL

'''Description:'''

In the science fiction film Tron (1982), an orange is scanned by a laser beam in order to be transferred into a virtual computer world. At the end of this “Matter Transform Sequence”, the orange has disappeared—its digital image appears on the screen instead. The promise of this fictional technology: the total capture and modeling of the bio-logical world, in order to make it manipulable, controllable, and available at will on a data-logical level.

Some four decades later, the methods and scope of data collection, processing, and storage have developed at a rapid pace. Increasingly large parts of the world and of our everyday lives are being digitized and incorporated into technical infrastructures, to the point that one can speak of a “datafication of everything.” Yet have we really come closer to the techno-utopia of the world’s complete capture?

Does not the sheer abundance of data itself show that certain aspects of the world and of “nature” always remain fleeting—immeasurable, unavailable, and resistant to any form of technical appropriation? Or is this, after all, merely a romantic notion that can no longer stand up to the effectiveness of Big Tech? How do we, as human beings and as artists, engage with the current situation? Can artistic practices open up alternatives to a purely technocratic handling of data?

The seminar investigates these questions from artistic, technical, practical, and theoretical perspectives. Following a general introduction to the topic, we will discuss artistic works and read selected texts in order to critically engage with the increasing quantification and datafication of the world. In practical workshops, we will do statistics with pen and paper and explore basic methods of collecting, ordering, counting, and classifying biological samples. From there, we will trace the path toward today’s computer-based (classification) procedures grounded in machine learning and data-driven research in science. Hovering above all of this is the question of the relationship between materiality and digitality: what continuities persist, and what ruptures emerge?

The aim is to develop independent project ideas and realizations that engage artistically and experimentally with specific aspects of the theme DataNatures.

'''Preliminary schedule: '''

'''Literature list:'''

* Bowker, Geoffrey C., und Susan Leigh Star (2000) – Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences
* Bridle, James (2018) – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future
* Crawford, Kate (2021) – Atlas of AI: The Real Worlds of Artificial Intelligence #ai #classification
* Latour, Bruno – [http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/downloads/53-PANDORA-TOPOFIL-pdf.pdf Circulating Reference] (EN) | Zirkulierende Referenz (DE) #science
* Trogemann, Georg (2014) – [https://interface.khm.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/KHMjournal_Trogemann.pdf Das vermessene Leben]