What is truth, what is the role of journalism, and how can art and journalism contribute in a meaningful way in the midst of seemingly endless crises? Dataspace is a project that proposes a form of “newspaper of the future,” showcasing data on the profound impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine in the Ars Electronica Center’s Deep Space 8K.
February 24, 2022. In the midst of the global Covid pandemic, Russia invaded Ukraine. Until today, this war in Europe continues. This poses questions for the media as well as the general public about truth, art, and journalism in the eye of crisis. Dataspace presented one possible answer, a sort of Zen garden of information created solely by data – born from a collaboration between the Innovation Lab of the global financial media company Nikkei and the Ars Electronica Futurelab.
Faced with a sharp rise in oil prices, can we build an economic model without oil? Now that gas supplies are scarce, what is the cost of our dependency? Now that wheat is in short supply worldwide, can we avoid hunger? And what kind of new turmoil might this impact create? If you were to be displaced by war, what would be your home? What will the nation budget for and where could the world go in the wake of this war? And what will the future of democracy probably look like?
Dataspace participants were immersed in a fact-based data space on these topics and then given the opportunity to discuss these questions. We call this act of creating social dialogue through artistic expression, research, exploration, and action “Artistic Journalism”. This new journalism would revolutionize the way we look at current events.
Dataspace: Global impacts of the Russian war on Ukraine; photo: Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe
Dataspace: Global impacts of the Russian war on Ukraine; photo: Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe
Dataspace: Global impacts of the Russian war on Ukraine; photo: Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe
Dataspace: Global impacts of the Russian war on Ukraine; photo: Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe
Dataspace: Global impacts of the Russian war on Ukraine; photo: Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe
Dataspace derives from many questions that arose around the many crises around the world, from Covid to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The etymology of the word “newspaper” in Japanese means “to hear” something new. If the “newspaper” as a new metaphor becomes a medium that allows people to experience “something new,” what kind of new social awareness and opportunities can it provide? In this age of visual information inundated with text, images, and other visual information, what new ways are there for people to listen carefully to facts and issues and think deeply and slowly, rather than simply consuming and reacting to information and news?
Read more about Dataspace on the Ars Electronica Blog.
Credits
Nikkei Innovation Lab: Hiroyuki Watanabe, Nobuyuki Oishi, Takeshi Yamada, Akihito Takei, Masami Fujita
Ars Electronica Futurelab: Arno Deutschbauer, Manuel Dobusch, Nicolas Naveau, Hideaki Ogawa, Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe, Julian Zauner