In a world where data is constantly mined, processed, and used for profit and power, how can we become active citizens rather than passive inhabitants of the digital landscape?Jer Thorp's analysis of the word "data" in 10,325 New York Times stories written between 1984 and 2018 reveals a striking trend: alongside classic companions like "information" and "digital," we now find "scandal," "misinformation," "ethics," "friends," and "play." In Living in Data,...

In the fall of 2009, the data artist Jer Thorp wrote a pair of algorithms to inscribe names on the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan. The project involved designing a layout that allowed for “meaningful adjacencies”?family members, business partners, coworkers?to be etched into the bronze in close proximity. Thorp presented his results in competition against another team, a group of financial analysts who had also been working on the problem. The analysts were confident they’d found the most high...