Data TRIKE is coming soon!

HELLO! WELCOME TO DATA TRIKE. LET’S TALK DATA!

 

WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT DATA SO MUCH?

  1. Because we love a soulful android, and have taken Brent Spiner’s iconic character as our unofficial mascot.
  2. The creation and presentation of data plays an instrumental part in how we view the world. Understanding the processes and decision making in the creation of data is an essential of knowing how the world is shaped.

 

SO IS THIS WEBSITE ABOUT NUMBERS?

What we are really here to do is to offer a guided exploration of how data can be used in humanities study, by taking a critical look at data origins and transformations. We do this by taking a firm stance against the idea that there is such a thing as “raw” data. Any data source, whether it’s being compiled by you or by someone else, has been created through a series of choices that will affect the outcomes of your data transformations. Every database has a history, all information exists because of human interference. Any further transformations of this data will necessarily involve making more choices: more human input. Data work is storytelling, in the sense that at many points different decisions could be made, changing the trajectory and the outcome.

What you will find on this website are a series of exhibitions that will demonstrate what data can look like in a humanities context, and what kinds of digital tools exist to work with it. We demonstrate how each data set was selected, and every transformation it goes through as we explicate what choices were made along the way and why. You will also find illustrations of what we found interesting in the data, and examples of how we might use it in a humanities project, but what we are most interested in is demystifying data work: encouraging you to pick up the tools and play along with us. Let’s see what stories you find.

 

WHO IS TRIKE FOR?

TRIKE is an open educational resource. It is for educators, students at any level, or anyone else interested in working with or understanding data as a non-neutral object of critique.

 

TRIKE?

(Transformational Repository for Instruction, Knowledge, and Explication)

 

WHEN CAN I SEE THIS AMAZING WORK?

Data TRIKE will be live by mid-May. Stay tuned!