{"product_id":"living-in-data-a-citizens-guide-to-a-better-information-future","title":"Jer Thorp: Living in Data [2021] hardback","description":"In the fall of 2009, the data artist Jer Thorp wrote a pair of algorithms to inscribe names on the 9\/11 Memorial in Manhattan. The project involved designing a layout that allowed for \"meaningful adjacencies\"-family members, business partners, coworkers-to be etched into the bronze in close proximity. Thorp presented his results in competition against another team, a group of financial analysts who had also been working on the problem.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe analysts were confident they'd found the most highly optimized solution-a maximum of about 93 percent of the adjacencies could be satisfied-when Thorp, a long-haired artist working on an old broken laptop, presented his layout: it was 99.99 percent solved. The analysts, it turned out, had looked at the data but not at how the data was to be represented. But Thorp considered each name as a unique unit in a real system. He'd solved a data problem by honoring the people from whom the data came, as well as the world in which that data would live.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe memorial project represents Thorp's approach to data as a rich medium for personal and community growth. This human-centered approach has defined his work, from The New York Times to the Museum of Modern Art to the Library of Congress; from a submarine at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to a boat in the middle of Africa's Okavango Delta; from Manchester's town hall to an abandoned school in St. Louis's north side.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Living in Data, Thorp proves that thinking about data in a human context makes us better problem solvers and builds a healthier relationship between us and our data-one that puts our well-being front and center-and that there is a path forward beyond the extractive, impersonal nature of the \"big data\" era.","brand":"Thorp, Jer","offers":[{"title":"Good","offer_id":49386907337043,"sku":"XG80374189907","price":9.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/thorp-jer-living-in-data-a-citizen-s-guide-to-a-better-information-future-xg80374189907-58847932711251.jpg?v=1726699992","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/living-in-data-a-citizens-guide-to-a-better-information-future","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}