Arts exhibition as lab experiment: methods for social change
Annette Markham, Gabriel Pereira
with Sarah Schorr
Data literacy requires “a reflexive awareness of the systems of digitalization, datafication, and computation, which involves the many ways data are defined, created, and used, along with an ability to understand the greater systems within which data play a role” (Markham, 2017). This blog post is a working draft where my colleagues Gabriel Pereira, Sarah Schorr, and I discuss some of the details of a public data literacy effort, the Museum of Random Memory, or MoRM.
MoRM: Our affectionate name for a series of events that combine features of art exhibition, experimental lab, research dissemination, theatre performance, and classroom.
Among the many ways to describe this project, we find experimentation is a strong framework for conceptualizing and enacting participatory research that seeks to promote data literacy. We’re making the argument that conceptualizing the design and setup of literacy efforts within a framework of experimentation can help researchers and educators identify some of their methods through the lens of the science lab and continuously calibrate micro details of their processes which, in turn, enables improved techniques for studying the complexities of digital or data literacy. The process of thinking of one’s research through the lens of experimental design enables a particular type of reflexivity, we argue, that helps social change projects like MoRM continually test and tweak data literacy efforts.
Data literacy requires “a reflexive awareness of the systems of digitalization, datafication, and computation, which involves the many ways data are defined, created, and used, along with an ability to understand the greater systems within which data play a role” (Markham, 2017). This blog post is a working draft where my colleagues Gabriel Pereira, Sarah Schorr, and I discuss some of the details of a public data literacy effort, the Museum of Random Memory. MoRM is a mix that combines features of an art exhibition, a social science experimental lab, a platform for research dissemination, a theatre performance, and a classroom. Among the many ways to describe this project, we find experimentation is a strong framework for conceptualizing and enacting participatory research that seeks to promote data literacy. Conceptualizing the design and setup of literacy efforts within a framework of experimentation can help researchers and educators identify and continuously calibrate micro details of their process which, in turn, enables improved techniques for studying the complexities of digital or data literacy. Through experimental reflexivity, projects like MoRM can continually test and tweak data literacy efforts, thus contributing to greater awareness and literacy across a range of publics.
Test