5th INTERNATIONAL ENCOUNTERS IN ART AND DESIGN
International Conference, ESAD de Reims, 13 th October 2015
Collective publication, December 2015
DATALOGY
Imagine, represent & interpret data: aesthetic, ethical and sociopolitical
implication
CALL FOR ENTRIES
October 13th, 2015, the Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design of Reims is organizing its fifth International
Encounters in Art and Design seminar, following the seminar on Shapes, Technologies, Society. Design
and Search of Meaning1, developed jointly by the Graphic and Digital Department at the ESAD of Reims
and the “Ethics, Technologies, Organisations, Society” (ETOS) research team of Telecom School of
Management (Business School of Mines-Telecom Institute).
Since 2011, this seminar has been conducting investigations into technological matters, assuming
that techniques are always related to symbolic and discursive contexts: “(Political, social, aesthetic,
theological, philosophic, etc.) logoi get closer and surround techniques, inserting it into a culture, so
that we never encounter technique alone, but always technologies2”. No technological developments
can be independent from a social imagination. Techniques are, like language, a fundamental element of
the human world: they are, as Cornélius Castoriadis wrote, an “essential dimension of the creation of
system of each form of social life3”. The relation between society and technique is not neutral.
At the next International Encounters of Art and Design , we would like to examine the relationship
between individuals, society, and data that constitute a new social and technological territory, as well
as a new space for mental and visual representations. We would like to better understand the nature of
the “given facts4” being produced massively by our society in the digital age. These facts take a growing
role in decision-making, of which everyone can feel the ubiquitous presence and the impacts on his or
her own life.
We propose to tackle these issues in the following questions during the seminar:
What is Data? How is Data created? Through what process of “changes5” does Data become
information? What are the principles of design that contribute to these changes? The graphic
1 All sessions are available at this address : http://esadlabs.reims.org/seminairefts
2 Gilbert Hottois, Le Signe et la technique, Paris, Aubier, 1984, p. 52.
3 Cornelius Castoriadis, Les Carrefours du labyrinthe. Tome 1. Paris, Seuil, 1978, p. 302.
4 Data: faits donnés, connus d’eux-mêmes ou par la science. Lat. part. passif datus, au plur. neutre : les choses données. in Le Littré.
5 Marie Neurath & Robin Kinross, Le transformateur. Principe de création des diagrammes Isotype. Paris, B42, 2013, pp. 77-95.
representations of Data before their analysis6 is used to uncover a potential or the hidden value in their
undifferentiated mass. This will require graphing data without altering it. The graphic designer may need
to represent contents without bias, maintaining “integrity7”. We can highlight that “data visualization” is
an increasingly common form of publication in press. What are some of the key issues, methods and
tools of data vizualisation? What new relationships are being established between designers and
content producers? What changes for our good practices? In addition, arising from digital technologies,
is data a language model8? A model that we could understand and interpret in all its cultural forms?
What is the world suggested by these forms?
The call for entries is aimed at designers, visual artists, developers and data journalists, as well as
theorists (sociologists, philosophers, historians, anthropologists, etc.).
Proposals will have a title, summary and key-words (maximum 1500 characters, spaces included,
accompanied with a short biography).
Closing date for the sending the proposals is 30th June 2015.
Proposals should be sent to Flore Garcin-Marrou (Flore.GARCIN-MARROU@mairie-reims.fr). Reply to
authors: 16th July 2015.
A collective publication of the 5th International encounters in Art and Design will include texts of the
Conference and other submitted text that were not part in the conference. Specific attention must be
given to the format of the final article: you can choose between two different formats (10.000
characters or 20.000 characters). Proposals will have a title, summary and key-words (maximum 1500
characters, spaces included, accompanied with a short biography). Closing date for the sending the
proposals is 30th June 2015. Proposals should be sent to Flore Garcin-Marrou (Flore.GARCINMARROU@mairie-reims.fr). Reply to authors: 16th July 2015.
After acceptance of proposals, the final articles are expected to be sent by the 20th September 2015.
Reply to authors: 16th July 2015.
ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Olaf Avenati, graphic and digital designer, professor at the ESAD de Reims.
Flore Garcin-Marrou, PhD University Paris-Sorbonne, head of research at the ESAD de Reims.
Pierre-Antoine Chardel, professor in ethical and social philosophy at Telecom Business School, head of
the “Ethics, Technologies, Organisations, Society” (ETOS), co-founder of a research chair “Personal
information values and politics” at the Mines-Telecom Institute.
ACADEMIC COMMITTEE:
Olaf Avenati, graphic and numeric designer, professor at the ESAD de Reims.
David Bihanic, associate professor at the University of Valenciennes, expert RES – Research in data
visualization.
6 Françis Anscombe, 1973, Graph in Statistician Analysis. American Statistician 27 (1), p.17-21.
7 “Graphical integrity”, in Edward Tufte, The visual display of quantitative information, 2nd edition, Graphics Press, 2001, p. 53-77.
8 « Les “immatériaux” désignent non pas simplement ce qui est immatériel mais, de façon ouverte, […], un matériau où “le modèle du
langage supplante celui de la matière” et dont le principe “n’est plus une substance stable mais un ensemble d’interactions” ». JeanFrançois Lyotard, Exposition Les immatériaux, Paris, Centre Pompidou, 1985.
Pierre-Antoine Chardel, professor in ethic and social philosophy at Telecom Business School, head of
the “Ethic, Technologies, Organisations, Society” (ETOS), co-founder of a research chair “Personal
information values and politics” at the Mines-Telecom Institute.
Alexis Chazard, professor in numeric design at the Esad de Valence, lecturer at the University Paris 8.
Flore Garcin-Marrou, PhD University Paris-Sorbonne, head of research at the ESAD de Reims.
Etienne Hervy, director of the International Center of graphism (Chaumont, France)
Olivier Segard, director of the department « Management, Marketing and strategy », Télécom School of
Management, member of the chair “Big data and Market insights” of Télécom ParisTech.
PARTNERS
5th International Encounters in Art and Design: ESAD de Reims • Région Champagne-Ardennes •
Reims métropole • Centre international du graphisme de Chaumont
Research program « Forms, Technology, Society »: ESAD de Reims / ETOS, Télécom Ecole de
Management / Institut Mines-Télécom
Contact: Flore Garcin-Marrou - Flore.GARCIN-MARROU@mairie-reims.fr