workshop

08/03/2025

House of electronic Arts Basel

HEK Workshop: The Self as a Data Trace

While the self is an elusive and fragile construct, in the digital realm, it is rendered into rows and columns—nominal, ordinal, and numerical data points—traced by every mouse movement, click, gaze, and post.

This workshop investigates the self as a data trace, exploring how data conglomerates, data brokers, and social media algorithms shape our digital identities. We will contrast these technological perspectives with artistic positions, counter-mappings and investigative approaches that expose the backstage operations of the digital self.

Participants will confront both the strangeness and the banality of corporate categorizations designed for profit, observe the algorithmic politics that dictate attention and erasure, and critically engage with modes of resistance. Through discussion and mapping, we will explore ways to navigate, challenge, and reflect on the datafied self in contrast to the more ambiguous and fluid notion of selfhood that resists definition.