Data culture has been understood and used to make decisions in organizational processes. However, data goes beyond the business field, impacting the production, consumption, and management process. We live immersed in data culture, even if we don’t notice it, as our everyday practices involve data.

As a result of the number of technological devices we use to carry out our daily activities, the production and the use of data have come under discussion. For example, the question of generating “fair” data cultures, in which digital rights and technological divides are at the center of the debate on the access and democratization of information, is now more constant.

Data science can be used for both morally good and sinister purposes, which makes it essential to emphasize that data are not neutral and never speak for themselves. We know that data are used to report injustices and sociopolitical calamities in the decision-making process, but they are also used to monitor, control, and bias.

Activism with data

At Datasketch, we understand data culture as the system of beliefs and thinking that encapsulates the use of data in decision-making to construct a more informed society. From Datasketch, we apply it from action as we seek to promote a model of thinking whose basis is the intersection between data science, art, culture, and technology for the benefit of society.

Since 2015, we have focused our work on data and new technologies in the cloud to facilitate the communication of information, support decision-making for public management, and promote informed debates on current issues related to citizens' quality of life.

Thus, our commitment is to implement, intervene and transform information into activities, projects, and events that carry concrete and innovative messages in various formats and through different media.

We seek to provide creative content to citizens constantly overwhelmed by rivers of information: physical products with data, interactive services, and options close to their feelings and expressions.

Mosaic of Rosa Elvira Cely built from different cross-references of data on gender violence and femicide data in Colombia. On November 25, 2017, the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we took this photo in Bogotá, Colombia’s Parque Nacional.

Open data and access to information

In recent years, we have created knowledge products (usually digital) for organizations that want to benefit society. These include interactive web reports, digital and analog visualizations, and infographics.

For example, in 2019, we brought this knowledge to print communication at the 2019 Bogotá International Book Fair. This year we find ourselves launching our own physical space to exchange ideas with physical products with information contained in objects such as bags, t-shirts, candles, notebooks, and posters.

Thanks to the good reception of our products, we are now building bridges between those digital and analog information products through our website and the websites of partner organizations (such as independent media). Our novel format allows citizens not only to consume digital information but also to approach the world of technologies with a physical experience. For this, it has been key to promote cultural activities such as talks, exhibitions, and algorithmic art shows, about which you can learn more by visiting our blog.

Datasketch Culture

Currently, we promote a space for promotion and dissemination in our newsletter. We highlight news, articles, and content that we curate and consider relevant to share. We also highlight artists, movements, and processes linked to the synergy between science, art, and technology.

On the other hand, the Datasketch House opened its doors in November 2020 to involve data science, art, and design through activities and partnerships with social organizations, artists, journalists, and civil society. Research and public debate projects such as anti-corruption, gender inequality, human rights, the environment, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence and algorithms have been shared.

The purpose is to involve various disciplines in the possibility of finding and exploring ways to raise awareness for open information, following the paths of openness of data, democratization, and freedom to circulate knowledge.

Would you like to become one of our partners? Do you have projects you want to share?

Write to us on social networks 😉.