2020-04-29T18:48:48+02:00

Apr 29, 2020 · 1 min read
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Al Jazeera made a nice short documentary about the work of data journalist and artist Mona Chalabi: Journalism Through Art. Her hand drawn style is really interesting as it can challenge dominant narratives and styles of representing data. And the style itself shows how there is always some uncertainty in the data:

She believes that drawing can make data more accessible to people - and more transparent. “Part of the purpose of creating hand-drawn illustrations is that I want people to look at it and question the illustration that they see in front of them because the truth is that there is a high degree of imprecision in data,” she says. “I think there’s something to be said for an understanding that for every statistic that you see the truth lies somewhere in the parametres around that number.”

Data Documentary Art
Wouter Van Rossem
Authors
Wouter Van Rossem
Wouter Van Rossem is a researcher on the intersection between social science and computer science. He previously worked on the European Research Council (ERC) funded project, Processing Citizenship, where he investigated how data infrastructures for population processing co-produce citizens, Europe, and territory. He completed his PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and is still working on publications stemming from these impactful projects. In addition to his academic pursuits as a PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, he brings a diverse background as a software engineer, having worked in various companies and at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy. His diverse background, spanning both theoretical and hands-on knowledge, reflects his keen interest in exploring the intricate interconnections between technology and society.