Sophie Ashdown

As part of my efforts to create art using data, I am spending a fair amount of time buried in spreadsheets. This has got me thinking about the data itself, how it exists in its “raw” state and how I can materialise it into a piece of art.

Mostly the data begins its life in a spreadsheet as flat, numerical information that is somewhat disembodied from anything real. It exists in columns are rows, that can seem infinite whilst each individual piece of data can feel insignificant on its own. The data in the spreadsheet seems clear, ordered, and yet static.

Now when I’m assessing the data and figuring out what I can do with it, I am interested in what happens when I interrupt that order and predictability. How can I manoeuvre and manipulate the data into a beautiful and intriguing piece of art?

Admittedly, it doesn’t always work. I have assessed a few different data sets where the numbers just didn’t translate into something I could work with. Either the patterns would be too uniform or just plain boring.

Translating the digital data into a physical version in paint or collage requires a lot of thinking, sketching, working and reworking to see what fits. I have to think about scale, proportion, colours, lines, patterns, and also precision.

I originally expected to be working in a very precise way to deliver precise results, but I am finding that when making the work by hand, there is a natural imprecise outcome, because the hand doesn’t create perfectly straight lines, and also mistakes happen. I am learning to accept and appreciate the irregularities as part of the overall effect.

The process is making me increasingly aware that translating the data into art is not a simple exercise. Much like any artist would manipulate and experiment with paint or clay or fabric, I am doing these same things with the data. It is helping me to embrace my intentions of making the data be a viable material in art.

Everything is still a work in progress but I’m starting to enjoy the process more, even though it is frustrating at times.

I recognise that I still have a way to go in proving to others (and myself at times) that art can be made from data, but I feel like something is starting to click. Watch this space!