Thinking Through Data: How Outliers, Aggregates, and Patterns Shape Perception (1) (Sensing Media: Aesthetics, Philosophy, and Cultures of Media)

Synopsis

We encounter digital data processing on a range of platforms and in a multitude of contexts today: in the predictive algorithms of the financial sector, in drones, insurance, and risk management, in smart cities, biometrics, medicine, and more. This fascinating book explores the historical context of the current data-driven paradigm and explains how elusive yet crucial statistical concepts such as outliers, aggregates, and patterns form how we sense and make sense of data. From the sixteenth century's embodied measurements of the foot, through the blurred facial features of L'Homme Moyen, to the image aggregates of today's security systems, the examples collected in this book illustrate the central role of aesthetics throughout the history of statistical knowledge production. Taking its point of departure in analyses and discussions of contemporary artistic experiments by Rossella Biscotti, Stéphanie Solinas, and Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, the book broadens our understanding of the structures of knowledge and methods in statistical computation beyond optimistic narratives of calculative power. Venturing out into the tails of the distributions—to the systemically overlooked and excluded—this book challenges us to embrace an alternative view of modern data processing.

Copyright:

2025

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

166 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781503642102

Related ISBNs:

9781503641891, 9781503642331

Publisher:

Stanford University Press

Date of Addition:

03/04/25

Copyrighted By:

Maja Bak Herrie.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Computers and Internet, Social Studies, Sociology

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.