The Labor of Looking

Data has become increasingly influential in shaping our world. It serves as the foundation for public policies, supporting advocacy, and informing algorithms used in search engines, social media, and other digital infrastructures that shape our knowledge and perception of the world and social reality. The pervasiveness and openness of its increasing use make it a powerful but perilous tool, and understanding the complex ways that data is compiled and transmitted visually is especially important now.

The Labor of Looking is a workshop series developed by York Chang and Tatiana Vahan in which participants engage in constructing an analog dataset using images from magazines, newspapers, and photobooks as a form of open data. Through workshop discussion, participants uncover the diversity of interpretations images offer while exploring the limitations, deception, and biases inherent in working with data. With a focus on data and image literacy, participants gain insights into the ethical considerations and effects associated with these mediums.

The first iteration of this workshop took place at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICA LA) with 12 high school students as part of their Agency of Assets Program. With the students we explored the themes of art, data, images, and labor through a collectively constructed survey. Data (beta): the labor of looking is the culmination of work produced with the students and was exhibited in the museum’s Annex Gallery (October 7, 2023 – January 14, 2024). The exhibition included an audio recording of discussions amongst students of the survey questions and a curation of thematic publications.

 

 

 

The second iteration took place at the Los Angeles County Arts Datathon at Inner City Arts on May 7th, 2024.

___

Source materials include:

Magazines: National Geographic (years), LIFE (1960’s and 70’s) Discover (1993), Venture: The Traveller’s World (1967), Simple Living (2019), Tribe: Photography and Moving Image From the Arab World (2023), New York Times (2020’s), New York Times Magazine (2020’s), Art + Practice catalog (2020), Year Nine, International Labor Organization pamphlet, Ebony magazine.

Books: Cats; Dogs; 100 Women; Theatre, second edition, by Robert Cohen; Lifespan Human Development, fifth edition, by Anne V. Gormly and David M. Brodzinsky; Essentials of Geology, tenth edition, by Frederick K. Lutgens and Edward J. Tarbuck; Cathedrals of the World, by Graziella Leyla Ciaga; Art Deco, by Eva Weber; Gems and Minerals; Josiah McElheny art book; Getty catalogue; LACMA catalogue.

___

The following artworks explore images as data, the limitations of quantitative data, and/or the concept of open association with images, and are included in workshop outline for potential presentation/discussion alongside activity. 

  • Binary Calculations are Inadequate, by Stephanie Dinkins’s Studio. An initiative in community data sourcing, “to create more descriptive, comprehensive, and supportive datasets that represent our communities with complexity, love and deep-seated understanding.”
  • Pluralism.xyz, by Nicolas Grenier. “Challenges the ways we represent the world through data, and proposes experimental alternatives to conventional measurement systems.”
  • The Future of Work, by Anxious to Make. “…aggregates over 100 results from a survey asking participants about the sharing economy, labor, bosses, and the future.”
  • 23 Views, by Tiffany Lin. “A series of drawings based on US Census data that investigates how categorical shifts in language have profoundly impacted our collective understanding of racial and ethnic identity in America.”
  • Rap Research Lab, by Tahir Hemphill. “A community-based creative technology studio that uses a Hiphop framework to develop new ways for people to engage with data and culture.”
  • Los Angeles Artist Census, organized by Tatiana Vahan and fellow LA artists. A community-driven research initiative.