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Artist Statement

The Black Living Data Booklet (BLDB) is a manual and manifesto that exists at the intersection of art, activism, and academic work. It is meant to be used as a resource for scholars, educators, and community members to better understand and engage with Black Living Data utilizing ethical and social justice oriented practices. As a Manifesto, this project defines and articulates the intents and purposes of Black Living Data. What is Black Living Data and How has the history of Data collection led to this definition. As a Manual, this articulation of Black Living Data informs how I think about the collection, curation, and critique of data and community engagement. Overall, I hope that this booklet encourages you to approach the creation and consumption of media, information, and data differently through a better understanding of discernment and care.

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As an installation, the Black Living Data Booklet (BLDB) is a multimodal experience which allows the audience to engage with the booklet in a variety of ways. Visit the gallery to view the BLDB as a series of images. Each “page” is numbered, so you can pick a number from 1-55 and take in the visual orientation of that page and its message. If you are doing research or teaching in data curation, the pick a number exercise can also be used as a method of engaging students with the piece (having students pick one of the pages to consider or write about) or a form of divination for what you might want to address or think through in your own projects (pick a number, view that page, and then ask yourself about what this particular page may be speaking to in relation to your own work or role as a researcher).

As a booklet, the Black Living Data Booklet (BLDB) can be downloaded as a PDF so that you can easily and freely print it in its physical form. Create your own booklet by shuffling and re-ordering the pages or adding pages and resources that are relevant to your own interests. For example, you could print out the page on how to keep a “Data Diary” to copy or paste into your own daily journal as a writing prompt. Share your engagement with the text and images on Twitter or Instagram with #BLDB.

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Inspiration and Acknowledgement

First, I would like to thank CLIR and the Andrew Mellon Foundation for funding this cohort of postdoctoral fellows as well as Purdue University for hosting me from 2019-2020. I thank the 2019-2021 CLIR fellows cohort for their inspiring work, conversations, and engagement during virtual meetings and in the cyberspace of social media.

In 2013, I created my first digital project called “The Hypertext Nabokov”, a multimedia Choose Your Own Adventure audio-video compilation of Vladimir Nabokov’s unfinished novel “The Original of Laura” (which was written on and printed in postcards which allow the reader to shuffle the story). It was also during this time that I began to experiment with mixed media collage and murals using the aesthetic of the chess board, repeating patterns, and color blocking. These first projects were inspired by George Perec and the French Oulipo, codework fiction and poetry, old school computer games and online and offline versions of the game of chess, as well as Ancient and French philosophy, to name just a few things. In many ways, the BLDB feels like a full circle completion of that original work and I am glad to have finally “completed” the narrative.

3 Steps to Download and Decode Data

 
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Daily Practice

The graphics above and below are downloadable wallpapers for your cellphone. These images can serve as daily reminders to use your discernment and an ethics of care when it comes to the creation and consumption of data, information, media, and technology.

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