Open Datasets as Creative Material

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.”
― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Created as a part of the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Council of Korea collaborative exchange, celebrating 60 years of diplomacy between the two countries, Artifacts of the Invisible City facilitates joint conversation and creation between Canadian and Korean artists about urban open data as an artistic material.

Seoul, Gwangju, and several Canadian cities (Toronto & Calgary) aggregate urban data online for the public to download and use freely. This project explores how artists leverage this information as a creative material—how they access data and turn it into artistic forms—because my own practice is closely tied to the materiality of experience, and firsthand understanding will enrich my ability to properly curate data-based artwork. This topic is timely with the rise of “smart city” environments that increasingly collect personal information, and artists who use those tools to interrogate contemporary society. It is also embedded with issues of equity, diversity, and environmental sustainability, since the discussion around “smart cities” and urban technologies is inextricably linked to surveillance, equity, wealth distribution, and environmental impact. Collective discussion and co-creation will enact a kind of thinking-through-doing, comparing Canada and Korea (data types/access procedures), but also asking what conceptual strands connect the virtual and physical cities of both countries.

PARTICIPANTS:
Younghui Kim (Korea)
Sookyun Yang (Korea)
Joel Ong (Canada)
Tyler Andruschak (Canada)
Melanie Wilmink (Canada-Korea)

This project is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
Canada-Korea Connections Grant (2023)