Reading Response #4

Within this article Mitchell Whitelaw talks about the different between data and information and how it pertains to art. People do normally interchange there meaning and I am glad Mitchell shows and explains the difference between them. I learned this in data management which is why I would never interchanged them.

Data- a collection of raw material.

Information - a meaning that is derived from data.

Through out this course we have learned that every info graph has a story behind it. What does the information in this graph mean? What is the concept? To hear something as a data graph/art is a bit odd to me, for data means nothing, data has no context. Something without a context can't have a meaning and without that meaning what is the point to the art work? What is the artist trying to show? What story are they trying to tell me as a view? Well the answer to all the questions is nothing because as I mentioned, data is nothing. But this raises a different point which I believe in, that data graphs/ art work don't exist. Here me out for a second and I maybe wrong but like I said this is my opinion. When a user looks at an art work, they try to interpret a meaning. When presented a data piece like Dragulescu’s work where the "data isn't important" that is not the case. For the user is trying to interpret the meaning, they are seeing your piece, looking at your data and themselves are trying to find a definition to the work. The user is making that data art work into an information work by giving it meaning. As I mentioned above, a data piece will never exist because the user will always try to make meaning to an art work.

This also goes into the idea of “junk is structure” or “structure is junk” as well as "everything is everything". I personally believe that junk is structure. It comes down to the fact that an art piece will always have a meaning, because people will constantly try to interpret. The real beauty here is that art has a special connection with each user including the artist itself. Where there is no right way to interpret a piece, for the artist interpretation of there own work is not the right answer.

I hope I explained myself properly and I hope I didn't get to far off from the article topic. This is just the process my mind took when I read the article.