The Optical Unconscious of Big Data: Datafication of vision and care for unknown futures
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The Optical Unconscious of Big Data : Datafication of vision and care for unknown futures. / Agostinho, Daniela.
I: Big Data & Society, Bind 6, Nr. 1, 05.01.2019, s. 1-10.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Optical Unconscious of Big Data
T2 - Datafication of vision and care for unknown futures
AU - Agostinho, Daniela
PY - 2019/1/5
Y1 - 2019/1/5
N2 - Ever since big data became a mot du jour across social fields, opticalmetaphors such as the microscope began to surface in popular discourseto describe and qualify its epistemological impact. While the persistenceof optics seems to be at odds with the datafication of vision, this articlesuggests that the optical metaphor offers an opportunity to reflect aboutthe material consequences of the modes of seeing and knowing thatcurrently shape datafied worlds. Drawing on feminist new materialism,the article investigates the optical metaphor as a material-discursivepractice that actively constitutes the world, as metaphors imply modes ofthinking, knowing and doing that have material enactions. Expandingvisual culture theories, the notion of “optical unconscious” is taken up todiscuss the tensions between displacement and persistence of opticswithin datafied worlds, that is, how optical vision is displaced but alsomobilised and repurposed by data-driven knowledge. In dialogue withfeminist science and technology studies and speculative ethics, I suggestthat the datafication of vision offers a chance to reconceptualize thesense of sight towards a sensorial engagement with big data premisedon responsibility, care, and an ethics of unknowability. Within thisframework, vision may be conceived differently, perhaps not only asenhancement and control, but as generator of new possibilities.Ultimately, the article proposes that the visual theories after which bigdata is being imagined matter not only for our understanding of bigdata’s epistemic potential, but also for the possibility of shapingemerging data worlds.
AB - Ever since big data became a mot du jour across social fields, opticalmetaphors such as the microscope began to surface in popular discourseto describe and qualify its epistemological impact. While the persistenceof optics seems to be at odds with the datafication of vision, this articlesuggests that the optical metaphor offers an opportunity to reflect aboutthe material consequences of the modes of seeing and knowing thatcurrently shape datafied worlds. Drawing on feminist new materialism,the article investigates the optical metaphor as a material-discursivepractice that actively constitutes the world, as metaphors imply modes ofthinking, knowing and doing that have material enactions. Expandingvisual culture theories, the notion of “optical unconscious” is taken up todiscuss the tensions between displacement and persistence of opticswithin datafied worlds, that is, how optical vision is displaced but alsomobilised and repurposed by data-driven knowledge. In dialogue withfeminist science and technology studies and speculative ethics, I suggestthat the datafication of vision offers a chance to reconceptualize thesense of sight towards a sensorial engagement with big data premisedon responsibility, care, and an ethics of unknowability. Within thisframework, vision may be conceived differently, perhaps not only asenhancement and control, but as generator of new possibilities.Ultimately, the article proposes that the visual theories after which bigdata is being imagined matter not only for our understanding of bigdata’s epistemic potential, but also for the possibility of shapingemerging data worlds.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - big data
KW - datafication
KW - vision
KW - care
KW - feminist materialism
KW - metaphors
KW - optical unconscious
U2 - 10.1177/2053951719826859
DO - 10.1177/2053951719826859
M3 - Journal article
VL - 6
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Big Data & Society
JF - Big Data & Society
SN - 2053-9517
IS - 1
ER -
ID: 195366784