Translating Slow Violence: The Use of Environmental Data in Art as Un-Forecasting

Abstract

This paper explores the potentiality of environmental data translation into affective artistic experiences. Slow violence in the environment is imperceptible and requires techniques of translating it into visual and sonic experiences. In the process, environmental data is used as a currency for translation. Shoshana Zuboff in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism discusses data collection is integral to a surveillance society, yet, data, when given back to citizens, can empower them, and in such a scenario, artists can play a crucial role. By discussing examples of contemporary artworks, the paper observes how ecological situations are captured as data and translated into affective experiences. Environmental data, however, is used also to speculate, predict, and even determine potential scenarios to happen in the future, as in the case of the weather forecast, and used to eliminate uncertainties. This paper argues that art helps make environmental data widely accessible, and suggests an alternative passage from predetermined scenarios speculated from data collection. Article received: April 25, 2021; Article accepted: June 21, 2021; Published online: September 15, 2021; Original scholarly paper