Art & Zines

Data & Organizing are about PEOPLE and POWER

This is a double sized zine about how power shows up in data work and how organizing works as a tool to leverage people power.

Data, data science, AI, and machine learning are often discussed as an almost magical force outside human control and objective, free from human bias. But these are tools, created by and used by humans, just like any other tool. Which means that many of the problems in data science aren’t technical problems, they’re people problems. It’s not a question of slightly tweaking an algorithm, but what is this designed to do in the first place, what are the baked in assumptions, and who gets to decide.

Over the course of the past year with the Data Science by Design book club we’ve read a number of books that get at these important roles of of people and power in data work. But they often left us wondering “now what?” My answer is to meet power with power — and that’s where organizing comes in. The theme for the DSxD anthology is “Our Environment”. Technologists often act as if they operate in a separate space, but I see data and tech as operating in the same sociopolitical environment as any other tool. I hope this zine serves as a bridge between the two worlds that I see as one.

This is layout is made to be easier to read somewhat linearly (except that the back cover is first). To actually work as a printable + foldable zine, every other row below will be flipped. Full sized PDF version here