ABSTRACT: Contrary to popular beliefs that depict data as truthful or objective, a data activist navigates the data-sphere from an opposite worldview: data is never neutral, and data visualization is inevitably rhetorical. But don’t worry: this is a feature, not a bug. This talk will focus on the many ways in which data can be used for activism, with a particular focus on data-inspired housing rights initiatives like Inside Airbnb and OCIO Venezia, and the works by the information design studio Sheldon.studio. BIO: Alice Corona is a partner and data journalist at Sheldon.studio, Board Member at Inside Airbnb, and Data activist at OCIO Venezia.

1. Data
Stories in pixels • Trento • 31/01/2024 • Alice Corona •
alice@sheldon.studio • @alice_corona • alice-corona.eu
Data as rhetoric Data as power
activism

2. Sheldon.studio
Partner and data journalist
Inside Airbnb
Advisory Board + Chair of the Board of
Directors of Housing Justice Data Lab
OCIO Venezia
(Data) Activist
Freelance Consultant
DATA: CNN Hong Kong, Wetlands Int., Carbon
Tracker Initiative
TEACH: UniBo, Dataninja, UniPr, UniRoma, Digital
Library, Data4Change
PAST EXPERIENCE
I have worked in Amsterdam as lead data journalist at
the startup Silk, and have counselled academia,
NGOs, and businesses on producing data stories.
I have given talks and workshops on data driven
storytelling techniques and best practices at local
and international events.
I have been project lead at Batjo, a Google-funded
project investigating physical data visualizations for
journalists.
I began practicing data journalism in 2012, during a
MA in Communication and Information Sciences at
the University of Tilburg (The Netherlands). I have a
BA degree in Contemporary History at the University
of Siena.
Alice Corona • alice@sheldon.studio • @alice_corona • alice-corona.eu

3. What is
Data
activism

4. Data activism, for me, means
Using data to
promote
justice.

5. Data activism, for me, means
Being conscious
of the limits
of data.

6. Data activism, for me, means
Returning data
to the
communities.

7. Data as
rhetoric power
Data (viz) is neither objective nor neutral

8. Data as
rhetoric power
Data (viz) is neither objective nor neutral

9. text
How much text?
What words to frame the data?
Where to put arrows and
highlights?
Words influence how we interpret the data and chart

10. Data Feminism, Chapter Six - Catherine D’Ignazion & Lauren Klein [Based on the study: “Disparities in Mental Health
Referral and Diagnosis in the New York City Jail Mental Health Service.”]

11. Data Feminism, Chapter Six - Catherine D’Ignazion & Lauren Klein [Based on the study: “Disparities in Mental Health
Referral and Diagnosis in the New York City Jail Mental Health Service.”]

12. data source
What data source?
What is counted in the chosen source?
How are things being counted?
Who is doing the counting?
Data are always the result of human decision - subjective or
inter-subjective, but never objective.

13. Reporting Sexual Assault: What The Clery Act Doesn’t Tell Us - Patrick Torphy, Michaela Halnon, and Jillian Meehan

14. Reporting Sexual Assault: What The Clery Act Doesn’t Tell Us - Patrick Torphy, Michaela Halnon, and Jillian Meehan

15. data selection
What range of the data?
Which variables?
What to aggregate and through what
metric?
A data analysis implies choosing what to focus on and what to exclude.

16. GLOBAL LAND-OCEAN TEMPERATURE INDEX 2018 - 2022
Compared to the long-term average from 1951 to 1980
Fonte: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)

18. AVERAGE ANNUAL TEMPERATURE BY YEAR 1880 - 2021
Fonte: US NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

19. chart design
How to allocate colors?
How to set up the axis and aspect ratio?
Which chart type to use?
If data is subjective, data selection and aggregation is subjective… there
can be no objectivity in a data representation based on these two layers of
subjectivity.

20. GLOBAL LAND-OCEAN TEMPERATURE INDEX 2018 - 2022
Compared to the long-term average from 1951 to 1980
Fonte: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)

21. AVERAGE ANNUAL TEMPERATURE BY YEAR 1880 - 2021
Fonte: US NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

22. GLOBAL LAND-OCEAN TEMPERATURE INDEX 2018 - 2022
Compared to the long-term average from 1951 to 1980
Fonte: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)

23. GLOBAL LAND-OCEAN TEMPERATURE INDEX 2018 - 2022
Compared to the long-term average from 1951 to 1980
Fonte: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)

24. Chart proposal for IPCC 6th assessment report, from a tweet by Ed Hawkins (21/03/2023)

25. Chart proposal for IPCC 6th assessment report, from a tweet by Ed Hawkins (21/03/2023)

26. DATA IS NOT OBJECTIVE, IT IS THE RESULT
OF ACTIONS MADE BY HUMANS
(INDIVIDUALS OR COMMUNITIES) BASED
ON BELIEFS ABOUT WHAT TO COLLECT
AND HOW TO COLLECT IT.
ANALYZING DATA MEANS DECIDING WHAT
IS IMPORTANT TO LOOK AT AND WHAT
CAN BE IGNORED. DIFFERENT PEOPLE OR
GROUPS OF PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE
DIFFERENT POSITIONS ON THIS.
VISUALIZING DATA, EVEN IN SCIENTIFIC
CONTEXTS, IS AN ACT OF PERSUASION.
BUT THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH
THAT.
DATA IS
RHETORIC:
OWN YOUR
CHOICES!

27. Data as
rhetoric power
Data (viz) is neither objective nor neutral

28. Library of missing datasets, photo and installation by Mimi Onuoha (2016)

29. María Salguero, Mapa Nacional de los feminicidios en México

30. Opening up open data • mappingdiversity.eu
Mapping
Diversity
- Sheldon.studio & OBCT

34. in progress
Including more cities.
Running local workshops to foster engagement around the
existing or potentially new data.

35. Creating data to counter narratives • insideairbnb.com
Inside
Airbnb
- Murray Cox,activist

44. in progress
Shift to a not-for-profit to help sustain the project and the broader
mission of housing access and right to the city.
Other data to investigate long-term rentals, property ownership
and corporate networks.
Sustain networks of cities organizing.
Country-wide data.
Crowdsourced registry or regulations.

45. Alternative data uses for local communities • ocio-venezia.it
OCIO
Venezia
- Activist Collective

51. Photo credits: Philippe Apatie

53. in progress
More Urban Walks for the Reappropriaton of the City (C.U.R.A).
Investigating ownership networks.
Advocating for a national legislation (Campagna Alta Tensione
Abitativa).
Not just Airbnb: housing right related to public housing, social
housing, and student housing

54. OFFICIAL STATISTICS OFTEN HIDE OR
UNDERCOUNT THOSE EXCLUDED FROM
POWER.
COLLECTING COUNTERDATA CAN BE
REVOLUTIONARY IN MAKING SURE THAT
THINGS THAT MATTER GET COUNTED.
DATA CAN, AND SHOULD, ACTIVATE
PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES: TAKE DATA
TO THE STREETS, THAT’S ACTUALLY
WHERE IT COMES FROM.
DATA SHOULDN’T BE JUST FOR NERDS.
WORKING WITH DATA DOESN’T HAVE TO
BE COMPLEX.
DATA (VIZ) IS A MEANS; NOT AN END.
DATA IS
ABOUT
POWER:
RECLAIM IT!
Stories in pixels • Trento • 31/01/2024 • Alice Corona • alice@sheldon.studio • @alice_corona • alice-corona.eu

55. ■ Bouk, D. (2022). Democracy’s data
■ Cairo, A. (2020). How charts lie: Getting
smarter about visual information.
■ D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. F. (2020). Data
Feminism.
■ D’Ignazio (2023). Counting Feminicide:
Data Feminism in Action
■ Graham, M., Dittus M. (2022).
Geographies of Digital Exclusion: Data and
Inequality
■ Gray, J., & Bounegru, L. (2019). Data
Journalism Handbook 2: Towards a
Critical Data Practice.
References and inspiration
■ Lupton, E., Tobias, J. (2021). Extra Bold: A
Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary
Field Guide for Graphic DesignersLiving
Data
■ Pater, R. (2016). The politics of design: A
(not so) global design manual for visual
communication.
■ Pater, R. (2021). CAPS LOCK
■ Loukissas, Y. A. (2022). All data are local