The Data at Hand: Data Physicalizations of Earth and Space @ Mills College Art Museum
Join MCAM for a conversation with artists Amanda Ugorji and Sophie Weston Chien of just practice and Sara Carr on Touching Toxicity.
A conversation with exhibiting artists Amanda Ugorji and Sophie Weston Chien of just practice, Bay Area environmental justice specialist Phoenix Armenta, and Sara Carr, Associate Professor of Architecture, Urbanism, and Landscape at Northeastern University. The discussion will center on the artists’ practice and their newly commissioned work Touching Toxicity, created for the exhibition The Data at Hand. Drawing on ecological justice work in the Bay Area, Touching Toxicity transforms environmental and social data into tangible material form.
Stay after the lecture and enjoy The Data at Hand Opening Reception at 4-6pm!
About the Exhibition
From political forecasting to the charting of global temperatures, data visualization has become a trusted tool to translate and give form to information. As scientists and activists have struggled to accurately communicate the enormity and urgency of humanity’s impact on the Earth, they’ve looked to data visualizations as a key means of communication. Yet these tools—which saturate so much popular media—can be difficult to engage with on a personal level, and at worst can engender feelings of numbness and powerlessness. Data physicalization, or the act of giving a data set physical form, can counteract the data fatigue that we face in a world of digital visualizations.
Bringing together newly commissioned work by just practice (Amanda Ugorji and Sophie Weston Chien) and Nathalie Miebach in conversation with works by Frances Gallardo, Karen LaMonte, Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock), Sarah Rosalena (Wixárika), Adrien Segal, Anna Von Mertens, and Tali Weinberg, The Data at Hand: Data Physicalizations of Earth and Space considers these questions and concerns around forming knowledge and the environment.
The exhibition highlights work in traditional craft materials like fiber, wood, and glass by artists who aim to make the complexity of our planet concrete and accessible. Drawing upon datasets from sources ranging from the shifting terrain of riverbeds to the practices of redlining, these artists make clear that data isn’t confined to spreadsheets. It bleeds into the world, affecting the actions of individuals and institutions. The Data at Hand offers us powerful examples of physical and experiential means to escape feeling lost in data, modeling the power of grounding it in experience and the material world.
Organized by Kayleigh Perkov, guest curator, with Juliana Rowen Barton, Director of the Center for the Arts and University Art Collections and Stephanie Hanor, Director of the Mills College Art Museum
The Data at Hand: Data Physicalizations of Earth and Space is presented as a collaboration between Gallery 360 and the Mills College Art Museum. The Oakland presentation is supported by the Joan Danforth Museum Endowment, the Cotton-Prieto Ceramics Fund, and The Jay DeFeo and Hung Liu Endowments.