Data Altar

personal data videoperformance weaving

Data Altar is a project that evolves through three ritual actions:

The first concerns the collection of personal data in a binary rate for one year period (July 2019 – July 2020).
The second is a video performance that presents a fictional ritual of purification and consolidation of the collected data.
The third is the act of weaving the purified pattern of personal data.

The first action of personal data collection evolves into a binary diary. Every day is judged as a “good” or a “bad” day, in the context of different socially imposed criteria such as mood, health, work performance, love and social life. Personal data composes a new pattern whose structure emerges at a rate of 0/1. The process of defining personal time in a binary identity raises questions about the ways we perceive and evaluate our daily lives and the ways Western culture norm defines the areas of personal achievement.

The second action presents a fictional ritual that heals the “bad” days, so that they can be woven. The ritual draws inspiration from common materials and practices that occur in non-Western cultures’ rituals but on the same time is structured on the semiology of Western scientific laboratory experiments. The narrative evolves following a sequence of kinesiology. The sound is created by polyphonies that act as a mantra. The rhythm is the connection of the multiple temporalities of the work: the diary, the kinesiology – music and the weaving.

The third action is weaving. Geometric patterns are created through the daily data recording. Weaving as an act is the recording of time in matter. In this case it is the transcription of the binary diary into material. Weaving is presented as a technology of archival production and the aesthetic result challenges the viewer to connect with the subjectivity of the collected data.

Data Altar,

Video Performance, Print, Woollen Textile

Data Altar Video Performance : 27.18 min

Concept, Art Director: Maria Varela

Cinematographer, Editor: Michalis Konstantatos

Choreographer, Performer: Angeliki Chatzi

Music: Vasilis Moschas (Polygrains)

Light designer: Yannis Fotou