Having mostly completed my data art about working from home (https://sophieashdown.blog/2026/02/24/update-on-the-blue-data-wfh-piece/), I am questioning my plan to use data affected by Covid.
Whilst I still feel like this approach is valuable, relatable, and valid, I’m not sure if I feel as much of a personal connection with it as I thought.
I’ve since been thinking about whether to make the art more personal to me and my experience.
There are many artists that use their personal history as the basis of their art. Tracey Emin is of course one of the most famous examples. In a way she has been doing her own data art for years such as the piece where she lists all the people she has slept with. (I am certainly not intending to create an artwork based on that same topic!)
We live in a data age where we no longer describe ourselves only through language or images. We can describe ourselves through metrics.
I realise that I do have quite a lot of data about myself available, eg:
- Fitness tracker
- Daily step count
- Heart rate history
- Duolingo stats
- Screen time
- Driving mileage
- Peloton workouts
- Running stats
- Period tracker
- Sleep data
- Social media posts
- Social media likes
- Ancestry family tree
- Places I have lived
- Meals I have cooked for my boys
- Amazon purchase history
If we think about it, devices are quantifying us continuously. Platforms rank us. Apps summarise us. And we start to measure and recognise ourselves in those summaries.
So can I quantify my own data into a kind of self portrait?
It wouldn’t describe the obvious characteristics of a self-portrait like what I look like. Instead it would be a commentary on how I behave.
It could be an interesting experiment, but would anyone want or care to see it? I’m going to explore this more to try and find out.
Sophie Ashdown 
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