Active Absences: exploring drawing-based analogies of the cognisphere

Abstract

The starting point for this research is the growth of global human-machine networks and the significance humans place on participation in such networks. This practice-led project investigates how negative space might be used as an analogy for non-machine interactions which are data-silent yet influence global networks in which humans and machines operate. A term used in visual arts to describe the space around or between elements in a composition, negative space can be as visually engaging and informative as that of the subject of the composition. I use the analogy of negative space to describe the partial nature of digital records of human experience, to establish the conditions in which the experience of such negative space can be studied, and to develop approaches which attempt to reconcile the experience of both global human-machine networks and their negative space. These experiments took place through a series of site-responsive installations assembled from everyday materials. During the project I tested different approaches to describing personal experience, including unusual forms of data visualisation, reinventions of data-collection processes, and developing digital and physical 'windows' through which audiences could engage with the work. Finally, I applied these approaches to explore the implications of lived experience of the COVID-19 pandemic on the human-machine networks of the cognisphere. Show more