Data Altar

personal data videoperformance weaving

The project Data Altar explores the intersection of personal experience, cultural rituals, and archival production, presented through three interconnected ritual actions. The first involves a year-long collection of binary personal data (July 2019–July 2020), where each day is recorded as “good” or “bad” based on socially defined criteria such as mood, health, work performance, love, and social life. This binary diary forms a geometric pattern, visualizing the subjective experience of time within the constraints of Western cultural norms that define personal success.

The second action is a video performance that depicts a fictional ritual of purification and consolidation of the collected data. Drawing inspiration from materials and practices of non-Western spiritual rituals while structured within the semiology of scientific laboratory experiments, the performance blends the spiritual and rational. Through a sequence of kinesiology, accompanied by a soundtrack referencing Eastern spiritual music and Byzantine psalms, the ritual “heals” the bad days, preparing the pattern for weaving. Polyphonic traditions are used as a mantra, creating a meditative soundscape that bridges personal and collective experience.

The third action involves weaving the purified binary pattern into a textile. Weaving, as a practice, transforms time into matter, embodying the binary diary in a tangible form. The resulting fabric serves as a material archive, challenging viewers to connect with the subjective nature of data and its aesthetic transformation.

Data Altar raises questions about how personal experiences are filtered through cultural norms and systems of measurement. It examines the role of rituals—both spiritual and scientific—as frameworks for interpreting and organizing human experiences. By recontextualizing everyday data into a narrative of purification and material creation, the project invites reflection on the intersections of personal identity, collective memory, and the evolving nature of cultural practices in a data-driven world.

Concept, Art Director: Maria Varela

Cinematographer, Editor: Michalis Konstantatos

Choreographer, Performer: Angeliki Chatzi

Music: Vasilis Moschas (Polygrains)

Light designer: Yannis Fotou