Thinking Through Data - How Outliers, Aggregates, and Patterns Shape Perception

We encounter digital data processing on a range of platforms and in a multitude of contexts today: in the predictive algorithms of the financial sector, in drones, insurance, and risk management, in smart cities, biometrics, medicine, and more. This fascinating book explores the historical context of the current data-driven paradigm and explains how elusive yet crucial statistical concepts such as outliers, aggregates, and patterns form how we sense and make sense of data. From the 16th century's embodied measurements of the foot, through the blurred facial features of L'Homme Moyen, to the image aggregates of today's security systems, the examples collected in this book illustrate the central role of aesthetics throughout the history of statistical knowledge production. Taking its point of departure in analyses and discussions of contemporary artistic experiments by Rossella Biscotti, St-anie Solinas, and Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, the book broadens our understanding of the s