The importance of open data is manyfold, with the obvious one of transparency. But for someone such as myself who constructs art objects with data, the difficulty has been getting access to rich datasets that are relatively easy to use. Over the next several years, data from the Open Data Portal will evolve into realtime datastreams with interfaces for public access. I expect to see an explosion of helpful apps and creative reuse of data.

I see data as sculptural material, like clay, plaster or steel. By using code to transform columns of numbers into 3D models, I call myself a “data miner,” where I extract data into small gems. I’m still experimenting with legibility and aesthetics. The primary question that drives this work is the question of “what does data look like?”