BIG BANG DATA at CCCB

To coincide with its 20th anniversary, the CCCB is opening a new space for exhibition projects that bring an integrative approach to 21st-century culture and the major transformations of the digital age. _BIGBANGDATA is the first in this series of proposals. Curated by Olga Subirós and José Luis de Vicente, it opens at the CCCB on 8 May 2014 and will later run at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Madrid from February to May 2015.

Hello World! Christopher Baker. Image courtesy of CCCB.

_BIGBANGDATA is a project that makes inroads into the phenomenon of the data explosion in which we are immersed, from the viewpoint of the arts, politics, research, innovation and participation.

Is data the new oil, a potentially boundless source of wealth? Is it the ammunition for arms of mass surveillance? Or should it be primarily an opportunity, an instrument for knowledge, prevention, efficiency and transparency, a tool to help construct a more transparent, participatory democracy?

Big Bang Data explores the phenomenon of the information explosion we are currently experiencing. The last five years have seen the emergence of a generalized awareness among academic and scientific sectors, government agencies, businesses and culture that generating, processing and above all interpreting data is radically transforming our society.

“After the novel, and subsequently cinema privileged narrative as the key form of cultural expression of the modern age, the computer age introduces its correlate — database. But it is also appropriate that we would want to develops poetics, aesthetics, and ethics of this database.”

–Lev Manovich ‘The Language of New Media’. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.

We all generate data, with our mobile phones, sensors, social networks, digital photographs and videos, purchase transactions and GPS signals. What is new is that it is increasingly easy to store and process these vast quantities of data that detect patterns (of incidents, behaviour, consumption, voting, investment, etc.). This fact is very quickly and completely changing the way decisions are made at all levels.

Taking part in the project are creators such as Christopher Baker, Chris Jordan, Ingo Gunther , Erik Kessels, David Bowen, Aaron Koblin, Eric Fischer, Near Future Laboratory, Bestiario, along with investigators, activists, designers, educators, analysts, cartographers, engineers, economists, architects, communicators, programmers, journalists and many others.

Curators, Olga Subirós and José Luis de Vicente.

Venue.-

at CCCB, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. Montalegre, 5 - 08001 Barcelona Barcelona, Spain.
at Fundación Telefónica. Edificio Telefónica - C/ Gran Vía, 28 (entrada por C/Fuencarral, 3). 28013- Madrid, Spain.

Dates.-

En el CCCB (Barcelona) – since 9th of May until 26th of October 2014.
En la Fundación Telefónica (Madrid) – since 25th February until 24th May 2015.

For the five or more months of _BIGBANGDATA, the exhibition space will provide a platform for meeting and debate. The Estació Beta will host workshops, hackathons, lectures, talks, educational programmes and meetings of local and international communities. Its programme offers the general public activities such as Big Data Week (in a network with 25 cities), the Eight Day Festival and the Data Journalism Conference, among many others.

To explore big bang data, the CCCB proposes an itinerary in the form of ten sections.

BIG DATA WEEK

to 11 May

The CCCB hosts the opening, the central conference, workshops and hackathon of the second edition of Big Data Week in Barcelona, coinciding with the Centre's exhibition "Big Bang Data".

This week of events sets out to discover and share new ideas and technologies that will shape our future in 2014 and beyond.

The official Big Data Week Conference 2014 in Barcelona
8 May, 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 19:00 // Click here to register.

Big Data Week Hackathon
9, 10 and 11 May// Click here to register.

Read less

Hello World! Christopher Baker. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

Data Will Help Us. Jonathan Harris. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

Running the Numbers. Chris Jordan. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

World Processor by Ingo Gunther. Photo of the installation. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

NSA, NRO, NGA by Trevor Paglen. Image courtesy of CCCB.

Basic vocabulary of Big Data. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

Where do my taxes go?. Fundación Civio. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

Cinema Redux. Brendan Dawes. Image courtesy of CCCB.

Prayer Companion. Interaction Research Studio, Goldsmiths. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

Tele-Present Water. David Bowen. Image courtesy of CCCB. Click above to see larger image.

View more images

Metalocus recommends

Almazara Acesur by Mollinedo Arquitectura. Photograph by Jesús Granada

An integrated and humanized landscape. Almazara Acesur by Mollinedo Arquitectura

Gimnasio de escalada Spluga por Enrico Scaramellini. Fotografía por Marcello Mariana

Prepare to climb. Spluga climbing gym by Enrico Scaramellini

KOI Building by Ortiz Leon Arquitectos. Photograph by David Frutos

A wavy glass skin. KOI Building by Ortiz Leon Arquitectos

More information

JOSÉ LUIS DE VICENTE

José Luis de Vicente. Curator, Researcher and Writer based in Barcelona Spain. His work investigates the cultural space between technologies, social innovation, art and design.

Currently he directs the Visualizar Program for Data Culture at Medialab Prado, an arts and technology space and citizen lab based in Madrid. He is the head curator of Sónar+D, the Innovation area of Barcelona’s acclaimed Sónar Festival, and is a member of the curation team of FutureEverything Festival, Manchester.

He is one of the founders of ZZZINC, a consultancy working in innovation for cultural organizations based in Barcelona. He has curated multiple symposiums and exhibitions on new media art, science and design. These include “Machines and Souls” (2008, Reina Sofia Museum), “Arcadia” and “Habitar” (2009, 210 Laboral Centro de Arte), “Invisible Fields” (2011, Arts Santa Monica, with Honor Harger), “Playtime: Game Mythologies” (2012, Maison d’Ailleurs) or the upcoming “Big Bang Data” (2014, CCCB).

Olga Subirós

Olga Subirós is an architect and curator of exhibition projects that provide an integrative approach to 21st century culture and the profound transformations of the digital era and the systemic crisis.

Her projects always seek the interaction of the public, whom she places at the centre of her work, introducing new and unexpected forms of experience in transmedia environments.

Olga Subirós currently teaches on the Master's Degree in Data and Design at Elisava, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, on the Master's Degree in Design and Production of Spaces CCCB-UPC and is a PhD candidate in Architecture and Design at RMIT.

In 2006 she founded Program Collective with Mona Kim (Paris), Todd Palmer (Chicago), and Simon Taylor (London), a multidisciplinary studio operating internationally in the fields of architecture, art, design, publishing and cultural analysis.

Subirós' proposal AIR/ARIA/AIRE won the competition for Catalonia's participation in the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 with an investigation into air pollution in urban areas, calling for changes in the model of the city, since air is a common good on which our survival depends.

Together with José Luis de Vicente, he was the curator of Big Bang Data, an exhibition on the datafication of the world presented at venues such as the Singapore ArtScience Museum and the MIT Museum, the contents of which were adapted and expanded for each centre. Subirós won the international competition for the Data Square exhibition at the EPFL-ArtLab in Lausanne, which runs until 2020.

He has designed the exhibition on the creative process of chef Ferran Adrià and the restaurant El Bulli held at Somerset House in London, the Museum of Science in Boston and the Fundación Telefónica in Madrid. Subirós has also curated the exhibition ¿Are you ready for TV? curated by Chus Martínez at MACBA, and more than a dozen exhibition projects at the CCCB in Barcelona.