Data, Disability, Detour, Détournement

In the current upswell of interest in data visualization and infographics among visual arts educators there has not been sufficient reflection on the ideological baggage and policy implications of information presented as reliably neutral and factual. Such presumptions have been challenged by conceptualist artists for many decades, and particularly by disabled artists in the last decade, whose experiences with medical and assistive technology, and institutions more broadly, have led them to question the neutrality of communication. In this piece, I draw on the work of recent and contemporary artists, with an emphasis on both D/deaf artists and disabled sound artists, to suggest a starting point for art teachers who might seek to use art to problematize institutional uses and abuses of information.