#algorithms have been showing me lots and lots of archival careers? like research or general archivist stuff in like museums

[elibeeline]

Its uni season and im once again debating online courses i cannot afford

[jenner-benjamin]

Extended Practice Summary

Presentation poster that summarises my practice in three words - digital rendering of mixed media works.

Throughout the last three years as a Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking Masters student my work has endured a development beyond that which I could have ever anticipated. I began the course very unsure of myself and felt incredibly out of my depth, suffering from imposter syndrome and a feeling a general uncertainty that I was a right fit for the course. I have since undertaken a series of modules that have; taught me the basic principles of printmaking, shown me how to understand research as a practice in itself, allowed me to develop ideas in a supportive environment, encouraged me to consider where I would place myself as a creative in a professional context, and ultimately, to produce a body of work that consolidates all of the above. My work has developed quite substantially in this time, beginning with figurative printmaking and ending at the complete opposite end of the spectrum in abstraction. However the concepts at the heart of the work have always remained constant. I have always strived to depict an autobiographical narrative, but the aesthetic, the depth of thought and research have progressed.

At the beginning of the academic year I had surmised that visual poetry and asemic writing were a means by which I could communicate a personal narrative. I had spent the previous year touching upon the theory of asemic writing, and using the skills I had learnt in the printmaking studios to develop ideas and explore this newfound and exciting visual language. Because I had established an area of interest and a research methodology, I sought to utilise this final year to try to locate my audience. I achieved a mindset of discerning that the end of the masters degree is not an ending as such, but the beginning of my career as a creative practitioner that is using the end of the masters degree to segue in to a professional context.

In terms of putting my aims in to practice, I submitted works to a multitude of opportunities, open calls and exhibitions with the intention of placing myself in a professional context and locating my audience simultaneously. As time progressed I understood that I am a representative of more than just one community of artists. I am a Masters degree student, a queer artist, a conceptual artist, a performance artist, a book artist, a visual poet and also a researcher. Therefore, by not defining myself as a fixed identity I was able to explore more avenues and test more places where I might place my work. I submitted works to assembling publications and exhibitions, both digital and physical. The networking that I have carried out as a result of this determination has led to further opportunities, such as exhibiting at Bristol Pride and reaching out to artists whose work touches upon asemic writing in their practice.

I have finally developed my website as a space to host a digital portfolio. A lot of open calls and opportunities ask for an online presence, and I feel a website is considerably more professional than pointing people in the direction of your Instagram profile. I initially made my website to serve as an exhibition space for the Practice in a Professional Context module and for the Bower Ashton Library artist-in-residence exhibition. I am glad to be able to use this space as a permanent display for my work, rather than the awkward digital exhibition venue that it has been - though these were necessary at the time to adhere to government restrictions and social distancing measures.

I have regrettably not become as proactive as I would have liked at engaging with social media. I have grasped that it is a useful means through which ideas can be shared, but I still feel an awkward disconnect with the concept. Perhaps this is because the algorithms mean that there is no definite strategy to employ to get people to actually see your posts. I would rather put more emphasis on encouraging my audience to physically engage with my practice. I have achieved this by collating the work that I would have exhibited at the end of degree exhibition in to an edition of 150 publications that I will share with as many people as possible. I will post this portable exhibition to those that supported me in fundraising for the project, those that I would have invited to the exhibition at university, and I intend to submit the publications that are left over to various libraries and artist’s book archives.

Inevitably the current global crisis affected my practice quite dramatically. Access to university facilities has been sporadic throughout the last year, and this lack of consistency meant that my creative outputs have been staggered as a result. The weeks of isolation and multiple lockdowns hindered motivation and consequently, creative development. This feeling of disconnect that I had with my practice led to a period of reflection. I realised that not having access to the facilities meant that I did not feel the pressure to adhere to printmaking traditions, and that I could explore the more conceptual side of my work from home. This deeper understanding that I had gained of where I want to push my practice led to a much broader body of research, and I found that the gesture and performance of writing was as exciting to me as the works on paper themselves. Both research and performance have peaked my intrigue in the last six months and are areas that I would hope to explore further as my practice progresses after the course has ended.

The coronavirus outbreak affected more than just my university studies, it was also quite damaging to my mental wellbeing. Consequently I have utilised my practice as a coping mechanism throughout the latest lockdown. I have used it as a means of documenting everything that I have felt and experienced in the last year, this includes working in the hospitality industry throughout the whole ordeal, and in particular my feelings towards the treatment of hospitality workers. My third year work has told the story of the pandemic and three lockdowns from my point of view. The various periods of isolation and the loneliness that ensued had a negative impact on my mental health, and so I adapted these feelings into a series of breathing and drawing exercises that became daily rituals that formed a big part of my routine in lockdown.

The repercussions of the current situation meant that I faced many obstacles that required a degree of problem solving. The most notable instance was my time as artist-in-residence at Bower Ashton Library. I developed a body of work from found poetry that I was initially unable to complete due to the nation being locked down. I took to social media to ask my followers to send a found word, from which I could make a lockdown poem and print to send to everyone that had submitted a word. This was a wholesome project that kept my mind occupied in a time of uncertainty, and also a gift for everyone that took part. Upon my return to university I was able to complete the found poetry artist’s book, but the nation went in to a second lockdown just as I was about to exhibit the work. This challenged me to digitise the book that I had made and attribute a QR code to it that I plastered all around the city. My aim was for a new audience of passers-by to find my exhibition by chance, continuing the ethos of found poetry in a whole new context. I also spent the remaining budget from the residency on making the book into lo-fi zines that I could also distribute, wanting as many people to physically interact with the book as possible. I was particularly proud of this project, it showed that a little determination could enable me to see my ideas realise themselves in surprising and creative ways.

I have proven to myself that I can fulfil everything that I had proposed at the start of the year with very little in the way of facilities and materials. The majority of my final year’s worth of work was conducted from my bedroom with a roller and some etching ink. This low maintenance method of working is completely transferrable to anywhere in the world, which really is an exciting discovery to make so early on in my career as an artist. Armed with the knowledge that I do not necessarily need studios to develop ideas, I had the confidence to propose a project to an artist residency in rural Italy. I will be placing myself in the community and examining through first hand research how ideas of asemic writing and narrative might translate in a setting where the language spoken is not my mother tongue. I am intrigued as to the otherness of language, and how a language that I do not understand might be transcribed visually. The proposal itself is also transferrable, and has the potential to be explored on a global scale.

There is much scope for further research within asemic writing, and handwriting as a whole. I have enjoyed having the masters degree as a part time constant, but the nature of this part time study has meant that I have not been able to dedicate as much time to my practice as I would have liked. Asemic writing is an under researched area of study, and it deserves more time and commitment than I have been able to afford in the last few years. With this in mind I intend to write a proposal for PhD research. I am keen to explore ideas of asemic writing, narrative and comprehension, and will utilise everything that I have read and learnt in the last two years in particular as a basis for this proposal.

I cannot commend this course highly enough. Having the support to develop and explore my practice has been truly invaluable. I have seen my work mature in to a coherent practice with a clear path forwards beyond the confines of university. This confidence in my practice would not have been achieved without the continuous backing of the module leaders, my peer group, and studio culture as a whole. I have found my creative voice, and am excited to use everything that I have learnt as a student on this course to establish a future for myself as an artist.

[warninggraphiccontent]

7 February 2020

Bites back

Welcome back, to this newsletter and also to Data Bites. We held the eighth event in the series (and the first this decade - pedants who say the 2020s start in 2021, YMMV) last night - watch another set of brilliant presentations here, or catch up on Twitter here and here.

There was a lot of love for the National Audit Office's report on the challenges of using data in government, which Yvonne previewed way back in June and Adam responded to in October. DCMS and the Cabinet Office have just responded to the Public Accounts Committee report which they published in response to the NAO report - yes, government is still intending to appoint a chief data officer, which I've been banging on about ever since it was promised way back in 2017 (death, taxes, an imminent chief data officer appointment, etc).

Whitehall Monitor 2020 continues to generate good discussion - there's this from Nitika on transforming the civil service, building on the discussion at the launch, and this from Richard Vize on some of our findings around openness. And if transparency is your bag - which it probably is given you subscribe to this newsletter - we've got an event coming up on the transparency of outsourcing (which we may have mentioned before).

Finally, I'm fully intending to use this GIF every time we talk about fixing the plumbing.

Back next week - no doubt with various reshuffle-related charts...

Have a great weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

US politics

Who’s talking the most during Trump’s impeachment trial* (Washington Post)

Results: The Most Detailed Map of the Iowa Democratic Caucus* (New York Times)

A timelapse inside one caucus site shows Iowa’s trouble narrowing the field* (Washington Post)

Under ranked-choice voting, left-wing purism would aid Joe Biden* (The Economist)

American democracy is screwed (G. Elliott Morris)

White men most likely to feel better off under Trump — poll* (FT)

The strange and crucially important order of the Democratic primary states, explained (Vox)

Who will be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020?* (The Times)

‪‪Iowa Caucus, 2020‬‬ (Google Trends)

Election Needle: Iowa Caucus Forecast* (New York Times)

What Is the Election Needle? And Why Will We Have 4 of Them Tonight?* (The Upshot)

Democrats on Twitter more liberal, less focused on compromise than those not on the platform (Pew)

UK politics

Government reshuffles: the case for keeping ministers in post longer (IfG)

Value for Money Profiles: understand the costs of delivering local services (LGA, via Martin)

Parliamentary progress of legislation introduced to implement Brexit, 2019/20 (Maddy for IfG)

MoG, why? (IfG)

And the award for least diverse award goes to...

‘Little Women’ is unlikely to win best picture. That is exactly why it is important.* (Washington Post)

#Bafta (Ian Jones)

Oscars: the 92-year gender gap, visualised (The Guardian)

The Oscars diversity problem in charts* (FT)

Everything else

Where International Communities Cluster (The Pudding)

Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report 2019 (Ofcom)

Personal and economic well-being in the UK (ONS)

Imports and exports (ONS)

Comparing outbreaks (Reuters)

America's jobs report no longer moves markets much* (The Economist)

About #dataviz

Charting new territory: How The Economist designs charts for Instagram (The Economist)

Six Hats of Data Visualization (Nightingale)

Mapping how railroads built America* (FT)

Gazing at petals (Junk Charts)

El País wisely uses animated transitions (Alberto Cairo)

#dataviz tools (Maarten Lambrechts)

The genius of Hans Rosling, frame by frame (Voilà)

Meta data

WRT FRT, ETC

Artists and activists offer privacy hope as facial recognition spreads* (FT)

Quick, cheap to make and loved by police – facial recognition apps are on the rise (The Observer)

Will we finally look clearly at facial recognition technology? (Ellen Broad, Inside Story)

Seehofer dispenses with software for facial recognition (Spiegel)

Facial recognition cameras to be used by police in London (Channel 4 News)

On FRT... (CDEI)

Ada Lovelace Institute announces independent review of the governance of biometric data (Ada Lovelace Institute)

Tech

You are now remotely controlled* (Shoshana Zuboff, New York Times)

Teens have figured out how to mess with Instagram's tracking algorithm (CNET)

MIA launches crowdfunding drive to avoid platforms that 'sell data to Cambridge Analytica' (The Guardian)

Will we just accept our loss of privacy, or has the techlash already begun? (The Guardian)

Facebook content moderators required to sign PTSD forms* (FT)

CDEI Review of online targeting (CDEI)

Can the UK open tech’s black box? (Demos)

Openness

Light and shadows: the RHI scandal and the temptations of secrecy (Constitution Unit)

There is value in open data — but it’s hard to prove* (Apolitical)

Secrecy is this cowardly government's weapon of choice against public scrutiny (The Guardian)

Open contracting & the EU in 2020: What to expect (Open Contracting Partnership)

The case for AI transparency requirements (Brookings)

Cabinet Office on FoI (via Owen Boswarva, via Jenna)

Data

Data Bites #8: Getting things done with data in government (Institute for Government)

Thread (Graham for IfG Events)

The Office for National Statistics is a bakery. Let me explain… (ONS)

Filling Key Evidence Gaps: Public Policy Quarterly Review (ONS)

Response to PAC report on the challenges of using data across government (DCMS/Cabinet Office)

Changing the Data Governance Ecosystem – through narratives, practices and regulations (Ada Lovelace Institute)

When can expect more from data portability? (Leigh Dodds)

Smart cities: How data and artificial intelligence could change London (BBC News)

Monitoring Equality in Digital Public Services (ODI)

How to build a data culture (360Giving)

Eleven tips for working with large data sets (Nature)

PI and Liberty submit a new legal challenge after MI5 admits that vast troves of personal data was held in “ungoverned spaces” (Privacy International)

Never gonna give EU up

EU plans more protectionist antitrust rules, data sharing in policy shake-up (Reuters)

Shaping a digital future for Europe (Margrethe Vestager)

From the archives

Why You May Never Learn the Truth About ICE* (New York Times)

Plugged in, Powered up: A digital capacity building strategy for archives (National Archives)

Everything else

A few thoughts about VAR (Daisy Christodoulou)

Should We Trust Algorithms? (David Spiegelhalter in the Harvard Data Science Review)

New humanities-led network will put social justice at the heart of AI research (Ada Lovelace Institute)

Love, loss and virtual memorials: my brother’s digital legacy (The Observer)

NHS Hack Day

Rebottling the Gini: why this headline measure of inequality misses everything that matters* (Prospect)

We urgently need better evidence on the impacts of digitalisation (the other ODI)

Prospero's Practicum: Conjuring the 4th Industrial Revolution on an Even Smaller Island -  Jacqueline Poh's S T Lee Public Policy Lecture (Bennett Institute)

Opportunities

JOB: Deputy Director, Digital Identity (GDS, via Saxton Bampfylde)

JOB: Head of Policy and Strategy (GDS, via Tim)

JOB: Chief Digital Officer (Welsh Government)

JOBS: What Works Growth

JOB: Director of Digital Analytics (NHSX)

CHAIR: Ada Lovelace Institute

EVENT: How can outsourced public services be made more transparent? (Institute for Government)

EVENT: Making NHS data work for everyone (Society Guardian/Reform)

And finally...

Words

A poem (Brian Bilston)

When fonts fight, Times New Roman conquers (The Guardian)

These People Really Care About Fonts* (New York Times)

The words that hadn’t been said in a State of the Union until Trump said them* (Washington Post)

Quantifying Cummings (Peter Hoskin, via Tim)

Who gives a f*** about an Oxford comma? (YouGov, via Sukh)

Numbers

Why 02/02/2020 is the most palindromic date ever. (standupmaths)

Kobe Bryant: NBA legend's career in numbers (BBC Sport)

Pictures

this is the greatest tech mash-up since... (Matthew Champion, via Tim)

“HELP!!!” Internal #SharpieGate Emails Show Government Officials Freaked Out Over Trump’s “Doctored” Hurricane Map (BuzzFeed)

America's economic pie (CBS via Rob Delaney)

Data from Spotify suggest that listeners are gloomiest in February* (The Economist)

[fromtheeleventh-blog]

An Interview and Playlist with Mallory Walker!

I first met Mallory when she was an orientation aide for my freshman dorm at William & Mary. She’ll be starting graduate school in Boston very soon after a year working, researching, and putting exhibits together at William & Mary’s Swem library. Below is my interview with Mallory, a link to a paper that she recommends, and her awesome playlist! 

PLAYLIST

Mallory’s Spotify

Name: Mallory Walker (some people call me melon, which is cool too)

How are you involved in your music community?

I don’t know how much I even have a music community! The internet might be my music community. Does that count? I get music recommendations from my friends when they tweet about a song or post a playlist on their Instagram stories. I tried and failed to be a part of musical circles in college.

What do you love about your music community?

I think what’s cool about sharing music this way is the way it’s free and lacks a lot of judgement that has kept me away from other music communities. It’s like Spotify’s recommendation algorithms but from people whose music taste you appreciate and trust.

How would you improve your music community?

Well - this isn’t about my community but music communities in general. But so many spaces are dominated by a very specific subculture. I’ve talked to you about this before, I think, at a house show. It’s very male, very white, very cis and very straight. And with this group, there’s a level of elitism in the whole thing - people who want to be gatekeepers of their music scene. It can be a hard space to enter into, which is why I never did during college.

What is your first artistic memory?

I have a really vivid memory of sneaking under my dining room table with some markers and coloring the shit out of the legs of the table. It was pretty abstract and my mom flipped but I remembering feeling pretty punk rock over the whole ordeal.

How has your sense of place, your home, etc. impacted the way you think about the arts, music, or justice work?

I think so much of my sense of place has made me lazy about the way I think about all three of these things. At William & Mary, being black and vaguely ‘alternative’ made me feel like I didn’t need to do much work in terms of art, music or activism. As long as I wasn’t listening to Taylor Swift and enjoyed movies filmed in black and white, I felt like I was doing enough. My existence - at a PWI, in a sorority,etc - felt like a form of resistance. Which now that I’ve got one foot in the ‘real world’ I know now is just simply not enough - I’m too privileged to say that just my existence is a form of resistance. I have the ability to do more - and get away with doing more. Same goes for music and art - there’s a lot more than what’s just outside the mainstream.

How have your unique experiences shaped your musical or artistic identity?

I grew up on Michael Jackson and Queen. My dad went to James Brown concert (by himself I should add) when he was in middle school. My mom saw Fleetwood Mac in their prime. I think more than anything else my parents shaped a lot of my musical identity.

What are your Summer 2018 plans?

FYI I’m defining my summer as the month I have between my current job and starting school again. But I have no idea - I’ll between cities, jobs, apartments, etc. Maybe I’ll live in my car and drive up and down the coast? Maybe I’ll coach surf through cities on my way up to the Northeast? Who freakin’ knows but it will be the first time I am without definitive plans for perhaps years so I am EXCITED.

I’m a faithful watcher of your instagram stories and have often admired your tinctures and other creations. Can you tell me more about what inspired you to start get into witchcraft? Particularly being a kitchen witch and maybe what that means to you?

Let me start by saying I was a really weird kid. I often pretended to live in fantasy worlds and would check out every magic related book out from my local library. I really truly wanted more than anything to possess some kind of magical power. At some point in college, I felt called to return to that belief in the magical and supernatural. I think what people don’t realize is that we all have the power to kind of ‘lean in’ to our more magical selves. I’m a big believer in manifesting one’s own will. Before I had heard back from the schools I was applying to for my master’s, I spent a lot of time talking about ‘when I moved to Boston’ and ‘once I’m a student at Simmons’. It wasn’t long before I got my acceptance letter from Simmons. That’s magic - a combination of my own will, magical thinking, and hard work - no crystals or spells needed.

More recently, I think my interest in magic has led to a fascination with natural medicine. And that’s where my thinking of myself as a kitchen witch comes in. People often fall victim to the trope that being a witch has to be a lot of ceremony and ritual. And though that’s true, there’s a lot of magic a person can do every day. Food is a really easy way to do that. Things like basil or rosemary and horseradish taste great but they also have both magical and medicinal properties.

Can you talk a little bit about your work with Swem Library and in particular your exhibits, relationship or thoughts on display and representation? What have you learned and how do you want to move forward in library studies or what would you like to see happen in the future?

So, because my job is literally a fellowship designed to attract marginalized folks (specifically racial minorities) to the library field, I think my entire experience has been colored by this. My first project I was assigned was the curation of an exhibit that focused on the experience of the Black community at William & Mary. And for most of the time I worked on this, I questioned whether or not I was allowing myself to become a token. I’m the only person of color in my department, and one of few people of color working for William & Mary Libraries. Was I asked to curate this exhibit solely because I’m Black? But also, would it be right for a white person or a non-black person of color to curate this exhibit? I don’t think this is an issue I deal with alone, of course. A recent study found that 71% of librarians are white and 87% of exempt senior staff  are white (I’m putting the link to this study below). This is a huge problem, for so many reasons. Think about public libraries; do their staff reflect the communities they’re serving? Probably not because libraries are one of the only places of learning not restricted by a ‘paywall’.

A lot of what I think about for my career, especially now as I’m preparing for grad school, is how to I remain visible, outspoken, and effective without falling into this trap where the marginalized do all the work. I was at a conference last year that was surprisingly male dominated and even more dominated by middle-aged white folks. All the female-identifying people of color flocked to each other and one of them said to me along the lines of ‘if they’re going to make you a token, use it to your advantage’. I think that is going to define a lot of my career.

LINK TO STUDY

How are you feeling about your big Boston move? Oh and also CONGRATULATIONS ON GRAD SCHOOL!!

Ahh thank you!!! I think I have finally come to terms with my move. I hate to say it but I think I’ve gotten used to living in Virginia and am actually sad to leave the south (words I NEVER thought I would say). But, I am a nerd and cannot wait to start going to classes again. And I love the Northeast and moving to Boston is one step closer to fulfilling my dream of being a barefooted farmer in Vermont.

How have the different places you’ve lived in or occupied shaped you, the way you approach music, the arts, the ways you find to be creative, your world outlook, etc.?

As far as music - living in Virginia has made me come to respect folk music and bluegrass. Which is...weird but wow do I love some banjo solos.

I also think I have always had equals parts of a creative and analytical mind. It’s something I struggle as far as identity because those two ways of thinking feel as though they are constantly at war with each other. But the work I do in the archive - sifting through old papers, curating exhibits, and essentially organizing history - has made both aspects of myself feel at home.

My job and career align too with my magical self. I’m really interested in ancestor worship (partially because it’s common in hoodoo) and I do think there is something to be said about working on collections from people long gone. It is its own kind of ancestor worship. You’re honoring the past, acknowledging that it must be remembered - the good and the bad. I think a lot about one particularly item: “List of slaves owned by the College, circa 1780”. I got to hold that piece of paper in my hand - it was electrifying.