Wikistorm: Operation DATA

Well, what could be a more traditionally masculinist page within which to intervene?

DATA.

Between you (all) and me, the annoying thing about DATA (both the page on Wikipedia, and the concept as it is bandied about across departments) is the fact that it is presented as natural, unassailable, and without alternative. This is, incidentally, a legitimizing side effect of such rhetorical tactics as specifying the Latin or Greek etymological roots of a word (which is always done when Data is defined or described).

So I was positively gleeful when I "stormed" the Wikipedia page for DATA with the alternative notion of CAPTA. Capta, introduced in 1982 by Peter Checkland, is a notion of data that has been selected or interpreted, emphasizing the interpretive process. I thought it was great that it, too, is legitimized by the same Latin etymological tactics, creating a symmetry and therefore viable choice between data and capta. Here is the short paragraph I inserted as the third paragraph of the Wiki article. The link to the page is below:

"Though data is also increasingly used in humanities (particularly in the growing digital humanities), it has been suggested that the highly interpretive nature of humanities might be at odds with the ethos of data as given. Peter Checkland introduced the term capta (from the Latin capere, “to take”) to distinguish between an immense number of possible data and a sub-set of them, to which attention is oriented <link>. Johanna Drucker has argued that since the humanities affirm knowledge production as “situated, partial, and constitutive,” using data may introduce assumptions that are counterproductive, for example that phenomena are discreet or are observer-independent <link>. The term capta, which emphasizes the act of observation as constitutive, is offered as an alternative for the humanities."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data

If you notice my shout out to Johanna Drucker in the above, it is because 1. she is an incredibly smart and influential scholar pushing against the scientistic trends in data visualization in digital humanities, 2. she is both a scholar and practicing poet and book artist, and 3. she is going to be speaking at UCSD on Friday! Information below:

Friday, May 17 will be the final event in our Digital Humanities Lunch Speaker Series, featuring Johanna Drucker from the Department of Information Studies at UCLA.

TOPIC: "What Is The Humanistic Method In Digital Humanities?"

12:00-1:30 p.m., Seuss Room, Geisel Library

See you on Wednesday,

>Yelena