Film
Artist Jacob van der Beugel and philosopher Sabina Leonelli have collaborated with filmmaker Oliver Page towards an art movie examining the notion of ‘data shadows’, which Sabina pioneered (and discusses at length in a forthcoming book).
Examining data that are not there, not readily available, and/or not usable towards proving claims or fostering discoveries brings us to confront the significance of what is not typically recognised as knowledge — what is invisible, tacit, ignored, denied, expected, forbidden, private, inaccessible, unknown, or unexplored.
The film casts a light on how research data make their way through through human activities and non-human landscapes. By reimagining data as tangible physical objects that are subject to change from its very inception, we burst the bubble that has taught the general public, as well as academics, that data are immutable objects that magically appear everywhere all at once and can be easily controlled and owned. Our data have a life of their own, viscerally related to changes in nature, societies and climate, constantly adapting to novel conditions.
Data clusters are visualised by Jacob as concrete casts cast with a choice of aggregates: Physical cores get extracted from the soil, then graded and polished to go into a repository. This de-contextualisation is the start of their meandering journeys to other contexts and applications. When trying later to fit a core back into an extraction hole, some no longer fit as the core or the hole have degraded or filled, whereas others slot seamlessly together. The data shadows are what is missing, unavailable, or invisible — contrary to the naive idea of ‘data’ as solid, clear and immutable, we follow them through their journey of de- and re-contextualisation, here with patterns of light and shade that act to both clarify and obscure, and attract speculation, hinting at hidden infrastructures that change their meaning. Since there has been a perceived loss of human agency around data for many years, this project will reestablish the reasons why data does this and dissolve the magic that surrounds its perceived ethereality. This is one of the defining issues of our time and this project aims to bring a degree of restitution to this complex field.
Trailers
Viewings
This film, which was completed in December 2024 after two years of discussions and work, is intended for a very wide range of audiences and locations. It will be shown in various venues around Europe, as well as online and at international film festivals.
Register here for the Munich launch on 16 January 2025: https://tumthinktank.de/event/data-shadows/
And keep an eye on this page for updates on when it may show next! If you are interested in hosting a viewing, we would be delighted to hear from you – please email Sabina Leonelli.
Acknowledgements
This art-science-philosophy collaboration was supported by the European Research Council (ERC, PHIL_OS Project), UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), the Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences (Egenis) at the University of Exeter, the TUM Think Tank, the Ethical Data Initiative and the Chair for Philosophy and History of Science at the Technical University of Munich.
Academic references
Leonelli, S. (2023) Philosophy of Open Science. Elements series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Open Access. https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/philosophy-of-open-science/0D049ECF635F3B676C03C6868873E406
Beaulieu, A. and Leonelli, S. (2021) Data and Society: A Critical Introduction. London, UK: SAGE. https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/data-and-society/book269709
Leonelli, S. and Tempini, N. (eds) (2020) Data Journeys in the Sciences. Springer. Open Access. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030371760
Leonelli, S. (2018) La Ricerca Scientifica Nell’Era Dei Big Data. Meltemi Editore. (“Scientific Research in the Age of Big Data”). ISBN 9788883539015. Translated in Portuguese and French.
Leonelli, S. (2016) Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
Leonelli, S. (2023) Is Data Science Transforming Biomedical Research? Evidence, Expertise and Experiments in COVID-19 Science. Philosophy of Science 1-11 https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.122
Canali, S and Leonelli, S. (2022) Reframing the Environment in Data-Intensive Health Sciences. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 93: 203-214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.04.006
Staunton C, Barragan CA, Canali S, Ho C, Mayernik M, Leonelli S, Prainsack B, Wonkham A (2021) Open science, data sharing and solidarity: Who benefits? History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43:115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-021-00468-6
Leonelli, S. (2021) Data Science in Times of Pan(dem)ic. Harvard Data Science Review3(1) https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.fbb1bdd6 [featured article with seven discussion pieces]
Leonelli, S. (2019) Data – From Objects to Assets. Nature 574, 317-321. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03062-w
Leonelli, S. (2019) Data Governance is Key to Interpretation: Reconceptualising Data in Data Science. Harvard Data Science Review, inaugural issue. https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.17405bb6
Leonelli, S. (2019) What Distinguishes Data from Models? European Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9:22 (27 pages)https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-018-0246-0
Leonelli, S. (2018) The Time of Data: Time-Scales of Data Use in the Life Sciences. Philosophy of Science 85 (5):741-754. DOI: 10.1086/699699
Bezuidenhout, L., Leonelli, S., Kelly, A. and Rappert, B (2017) Beyond the Digital Divide: Towards a Situated Approach to Open Data. Science and Public Policy 44(4): 464-475 https://academic.oup.com/spp/article/44/4/464/3959654
Leonelli, S. (2016) Locating Ethics in Data Science: Responsibility and Accountability in Global and Distributed Knowledge Production. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Part A. 374: 20160122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0122
Leonelli, S., Rappert, B. and Davies, G. (2016) Introduction: Data Shadows: Knowledge, Openness and Absence. Society, Technology and Human Values 42 (2): 191-202.
Leonelli, S. (2015) What Counts as Scientific Data? A Relational Framework. Philosophy of Science 82: 810-821.
Leonelli, S. (2014) What Difference Does Quantity Make? On the Epistemology of Big Data in Biology. Big Data and Society 1: 1-11. http://bds.sagepub.com/content/spbds/1/1/2053951714534395.full.pdf
Leonelli, S. (2012) Making Sense of Data-Driven Research in the Biological and the Biomedical Sciences. Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43(1): 1-3.