Dr. Thomas Bjørnsten
Thomas B. Bjørnsten (b. 1976), PhD, is postdoc researcher at the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University (Denmark). He has a background in art history, sound studies, and aesthetic theory and currently works on the project entitled «Making sense of data» (2014-2017), funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research. The project focuses on contemporary visualization and sonification methods and investigates, among other things, artistic practices that are occupied with exploring digital formats, big data, and perceptual coding strategies. It also addresses how our interfaced engagement with computational technologies is negotiated by aesthetic experience and emotion. Recent articles include: «Big Data between audiovisual displays, artifacts, and aesthetic experience» 2016 (MedieKultur), and «From Particle Data to Particular Sounds», in: Journal of Sonic Studies, 10, 2015.
RESEARCH PROJECT
Making sense of data - understanding digital reality through contemporary artistic practices of visualization and sonification
The full title of my current research project (2014-2017) is «Making sense of data - understanding digital reality through contemporary artistic practices of visualization and sonification». The project is a transdisciplinary investigation of how we deal with technological mediation processes and the immense amounts of data and digital formats that constitute our composite analogue/digital life-world. Focusing on both visualization and sonification processes, the project’s research scope involves the investigation of contemporary artistic and experimental design practices occupied with exploring digital formats, big data, protocols, and perceptual coding strategies. A still growing number of artists are working with strategies for circumventing or critically approaching both visualization and sonification methods in relation to multi-dimensional data. Among other things, the project thus asks whether such artistic strategies can help us address and make clearer various sociological, political or aesthetic implications of data flows and processes. This relates, for instance, to broader societal questions about our still more intimate relationship with data and digital technologies and how this interfaced engagement is negotiated by aesthetic experience, emotion, and meaning generating operations. Currently my work in this area concentrates on the field of 'emotional data', which is closely connected to recent developments within Machine Learning and AI technologies. Specifically I am interested in the increasing ability of computers to interpret complex object constellations and communicative situations through automated algorithms that simulate human cognitive and emotional behavior.
The research project is funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research and Aarhus University and has been awarded a Sapere Aude: DFF Research Talent grant.