In the Article, What to Do with Pictures by David Joselit, he briefly goes over the term “Data Mining.” What he states is the following:
As the term “data mining” suggests, raw data is now regarded as a “natural,” or at least a naturalized, resource to be mined, like coal or diamonds. But unlike coal and diamonds, with their differing degrees of scarcity, data exists in unwieldy and ever-increasing quantities—it is harvested with every credit-card transaction, click of a cursor, and phone call we make. This reservoir of tiny, inconsequential facts, which is sublime in its ungraspable enormity, is meaningless in its disorganized state. Since such data is both superabundant and ostensibly trivial, what gives it value are the kinds of formats it can assume, which may be as wide-ranging as marketing profiles and intelligence on terrorism
I went on google to search for the word Data Mining, and this is their definition “the practice of examining large databases to generate new information.”
Upon combining David’s and Google information about Data Mining, I can conclude that Data mining is the extraction of Data that is then organized or formatted in a way, in which it would make sense to the viewer of this information.
-
Media Analysis: Hasan Elahi Tracking WebsiteI will use an excerpt from my post on the discussion board to give an overview of the project.
In my digital photography class, my professor assigned the class to watch a Ted Talk video about an artist named Hasan Elahi. This artist used data and photography to do this project that unexpectedly turned into a new media art project. This project has accumulated over 12 years of data. Since this art project is updated, several times a day, it is always adding new content and data.
This is a little background of the project. This project started because Hasan was stopped by security and the FBI whenever he was traveling in the airplane. They suspected that he was probably terrorist because he was racially profiled. This became a routine every time he traveled.
Instead of becoming frustrated and angry, he decided to start compiling this information into a website he created. This website tracked all his whereabouts. He took pictures of random things throughout his day. He took pictures of food he bought and ate, toilets he used, airports he traveled, the bed he slept in and among other activities he did throughout the day. Each pictured was tagged with the location and the time it was taken. He also included Google maps track his whereabouts. The site is still running today.
To demonstrate th
is idea on a personal basis, in my video, I used Facebook check-ins to see where I have been on a map. I go over some pictures that are tagged with each location, date and time. If this information were not formatted in a website the way it is on Facebook, my location, times, dates and pictures would hold no purpose. It would just be data that is on the internet.
This data can be used for marketing purposes if this information is sold to companies. Perhaps marketers would target a product to me. This data may hold some value because it may be used to persuade me to buy something or at the same time if this information goes to a stalker or cyber criminals, it may be used against me. The value in Hasan data is that it was evidence for Hasan to share with the FBI so that he would not be singled out at the airport all the time.
Websites: