Data Deluge

The ongoing dialogue between the digital and physical worlds provides the backdrop for Data Deluge, an exhibition that presents a selection of sculpture, furniture, painting, photography, video, sound and works on paper by artists who shape Web-based and software-generated data into art. The exhibition, curated by Rachel Gugelberger and Reynard Loki, takes its name from the title of a 2010 special report published by The Economist that observed the emergence of “a new kind of professional…the data scientist, who combines the skills of software programmer, statistician and storyteller/artist to extract the nuggets of gold hidden under mountains of data.”

Data Deluge features work by Rebeca Bollinger, Jon Brunberg, Anthony Discenza, Hans Haacke, Scott Hug, Loren Madsen, Michael Najjar and Adrien Segal that communicates a wide range of concerns, from the development of the world’s stock market indices to terrorist-related deaths, from national water use statistics to male responses to photographs of women in online chat groups. Newly created commissions by Jennifer Dalton, Roberto Pugliese and Anna Von Mertens tap into the unique characteristics of Texas, and Marfa in particular, with a sensitivity to minimalist forms, local weather conditions, the tourism industry and oil.

In Choruses from ‘The Rock’, the poet T.S. Eliot asks, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? / Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Through various approaches and with different sensibilities, the artists in Data Deluge address this issue by presenting innovative modes of data visualization and uncovering the often unexpected beauty of information.

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