CAREER: Physicalizing Small Data: A First-Person Approach to Examining IoT Data

通过与常驻艺术家合作，该项目将围绕家庭环境中数据的物理表示生成新的工具和方法。智能家居摄像头、智能扬声器、运动传感器、智能手表等家庭物联网(IoT)设备是一个快速增长的全球市场，不仅代表着收集人们数据的最重要的新方式之一，而且还发生在一个特别私密的空间-家庭。正如最近的公开辩论所阐明的那样，至关重要的是，人们能够访问、评估和控制他们自己的数据，以便更好地了解自己和其他人可以了解他们的信息，并管理允许收集这些数据可能带来的隐私和监视风险。为了帮助人们控制自己的数据，项目团队将把技术专家和艺术家聚集在一起，为个人创造新的方式，通过观察他们和他们的家的物联网系统来体验他们创建的数据。这种‘小数据’方法旨在以个人机构和控制数据为中心，帮助人们更多地意识到数据经济的参与者，并让他们更多地参与到数据经济中来，同时推动关于数据可视化和意义构建的知识。该项目由一系列第一人称研究协作艺术家驻场活动构成，这些活动开发并推广定制的数据物理表示(“物理化”)。从第一人称方法开始是至关重要的，因为发展有意义的物理化需要密切了解数据收集所涉及的背景和人员，例如，家庭环境、正在使用的特定技术、居民对数据的当前理解等。因此，每一次驻场都将从开发一系列与驻场艺术家的背景相适应的物理化原型开始。然后，项目团队将迭代原型和创建原型时使用的方法，以创建面向公众的活动和工具，更多的人可以根据自己的家庭、技术和理解进行试验和定制。总之，这项工作将(1)开发物联网数据在上下文中物理化的新工具和方法，(2)在记录、分析和传播研究结果方面提高第一人称方法的严谨性，(3)审查技术设计和艺术之间合作的创造性可能性，这些合作将超越数据物理化的具体问题，以及(4)促进其他对以数据为重点的研究感兴趣的研究人员可用的实践和工具。技术设计师和艺术家的合作也有可能邀请和参与那些经常在计算领域代表不足的社区，例如艺术和人文领域的女性和学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

By working with artists in residence, this project will generate novel tools and methods around physical representations of data in the context of the home. Home Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as smart home cameras, smart speakers, motion sensors, smart watches and more are a fast-growing global market that not only represents one of the most important new ways of collecting data about people, but also takes place in a particularly private space, the home. As articulated in recent public debates, it is crucial that people be able to access, assess, and control their own data in order to better understand both themselves and what others can learn about them, as well as to manage possible privacy and surveillance risks of allowing these data to be collected. To help people control their own data, the project team will bring together technologists and artists to create new ways for individuals to experience the data they create through IoT systems that observe them and their homes. This ‘small data’ approach is designed to center individual agency and control around data, helping people be more aware and engaged participants in the data economy while advancing knowledge around visualization and sense-making of data.The project is structured as a series of first-person research collaborative artist residencies that develop and then generalize bespoke physical representations (“physicalizations”) of data. Starting with a first-person approach is crucial because developing meaningful physicalizations require a close understanding of both the context and the people involved in the data collection, such as, the circumstances of the home, the particular technologies in play, the residents’ current understanding of data, and so on. Thus, each residency will start by developing a series of physicalization prototypes tuned to the resident artist’s context. Then, the project team will iterate on both the prototypes and the methods used in creating them to create public-facing activities and tools that a wider range of people can experiment with and customize to their own homes, technologies, and understandings. Together, the work will (1) develop new tools and methods for physicalizing IoT data in context, (2) increase rigor in first-person methods with regards to documenting, analyzing and disseminating findings, (3) examine the creative possibilities of collaborations between technology design and the arts that will generalize beyond the specific problem of data physicalization, and (4) advance the practice and tools available for other researchers interested in small data-focused research. The collaboration of technology designers and artists also has the potential to invite and involve communities who are often underrepresented in computing, for instance women and students in the arts and humanities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.