(k)not my data

It’s no longer surprising to learn that information about our activities, networks, interests, and more is collected, stored, and sold off to unknown entities. With so much of this data exchange staying behind closed doors, I wondered how much data has been collected about me. Could I access it? Could I analyze it? Could I delete it?

(k)not my data, a performance and installation, is an attempt to quantify one data set from my data body: my Instagram account. This analog intervention is intended to give materiality and visual weight to the invisibility of data collection. 

Each knot represents a data point (a like, a post, a comment, a story, a reel, an ad category I’m in, etc). All my conscious or unconscious actions have resulted in more than 50,000 points of data* amassed in my 11 years on the platform. 

I am concerned that without the ability to visualize the quantity of data collected about us, we won’t seriously consider the problematic effects data collection will have on our collective future.

Based on the partial knowledge that makes up my data body, Instagram thinks it knows who I am. But is this data an accurate representation of me? Is your data an accurate representation of you? How does our combined data dictate our shared future?

This is a work in progress with at least 25,000 knots already tied. 

*This data is not all inclusive; it’s only what is accessible and quantifiable in Instagram’s data download.