Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945 (Experimental Futures) - Softcover

"Beautiful Data is a significant work of contemporary theory . . . [that] lends difficult, rich new insights to unthought histories of digital perception, and to possible futures we might not only long for but actively build." -- Jackie Orr * Isis * "Beautiful Data will no doubt comprise a critical touchstone for future reflections on 'big data' and where it is taking us." -- Hallam Stevens * Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences * "Beautiful Data is an innovative, informative and highly enjoyable read for those who often find themselves hovering between disciplinary fields, offering a reflective history of early cybernetics, art, design, psychology and political science. Halpern guides her readers gracefully thorugh a history of interactivity between humans and machines, the archive and the interface." -- Amanda Tully * Science & Technology Studies * "Bringing together the history of science with studies of media, affect, and aesthetics, Beautiful Data offers a compelling account of the epistemological infrastructures of the digital that have, since 1945, radically changed the ways we see, interpret, and think." -- Jessica Hurley * American Literature * "...Halpern's brilliant and blow-by-blow exposition on the transformation of our sense and reason in Beautiful Data certainly enriches our critical and historical understanding of important parts of contemporary society. This book contributes to the fields of communication studies, media studies, and science, technology and society (STS), as well as the history of science." -- Yasuhito Abe * International Journal of Communication * "Overall... this is quite an interesting read, illustrating how a single idea (cybernetics) can permeate all walks of life, at least for a time." -- Alexander von Lunen * The British Journal for the History of Science *

Beautiful Data is both a history of big data and interactivity, and a sophisticated meditation on ideas about vision and cognition in the second half of the twentieth century. Contending that our forms of attention, observation, and truth are contingent and contested, Orit Halpern historicizes the ways that we are trained, and train ourselves, to observe and analyze the world. Tracing the postwar impact of cybernetics and the communication sciences on the social and human sciences, design, arts, and urban planning, she finds a radical shift in attitudes toward recording and displaying information. These changed attitudes produced what she calls communicative objectivity: new forms of observation, rationality, and economy based on the management and analysis of data. Halpern complicates assumptions about the value of data and visualization, arguing that changes in how we manage and train perception, and define reason and intelligence, are also transformations in governmentality. She also challenges the paradoxical belief that we are experiencing a crisis of attention caused by digital media, a crisis that can be resolved only through intensified media consumption.