The Data Publics conference ran over three days, from 31st March to 2nd April 2017 at LICA, Lancaster University.
It was supported by Cemore, alongside funding and support from a range of other partners, including the Digital Economy Network and the Data Science Institute (Lancaster University).
The aim of the conference was to investigate the diverse ways in which publics are, and can be, constituted, provoked, threatened, understood, and represented. This included examining the role played in the formation of publics by new on- and offline infrastructures, data visualisations, social and economic practices, research methods and creative practices, and emerging and future technologies.
It facilitated cross-cutting conversations between designers, social scientists and creative technologists to explore the new challenges and opportunities afforded by thinking and working with “Data Publics”, including keynote talks by John Bowers (Newcastle University), Helen Kennedy (The University of Sheffield), Michiel de Lange (Utrecht University), Anders Koed Madsen (Aalborg University), Noortje Marres (University of Warwick), and Alex Taylor (Microsoft Research).
The organisers have just written up a final report on the event that we are happy to make available here. It captures some sense of the vibrancy and intellectual energy of the event – which you can also get a sense of via the #DataPublics Storify.