Inside the data spectacle

This paper focuses first on the scopophilic aspects of large scale data visualization - the fantasy of command and control through seeing - and places these in relation to key sites and conventions inside the tech industry. John Caldwell's notion of "industrial reflexivity" provides a framework to explain the charismatic power and performative effects that attend representations of data as a visual spectacle. Drawing on twelve months of personal experience working for a large technology company, and observations from a number of relevant showcases, conferences, and events, I take a "production studies" approach to understand the forms of common sense produced in industry settings. I then offer two examples of data work understood as a new kind of "below the line" labor.