ODI's Data as Culture Programme
Data as Culture
The Open Data Institute (ODI) was co-founded in 2012 by the inventor of the web Sir Tim Berners-Lee and artificial intelligence expert Sir Nigel Shadbolt to show the value of open data, and to advocate for the innovative use of open data to affect positive change across the globe. The organisation is led Louise Burke, Managing Director.
Headquartered in London, with an international reach, hundreds of members, thousands of people trained, dozens of startups incubated, and a convening space based in the heart of London’s thriving Shoreditch area, we invite everyone interested in developing with data – whether on an individual, organisational or global level – to get in touch.
Data as Culture (DaC) is the art programme for The ODI. It is directed by Hannah Redler-Hawes working with the ODI team, senior management and key associates.
Hannah joined the ODI team as Associate Curator in 2014. As a contemporary art curator Hannah specialises in emerging and multidisciplinary practice which raises social, cultural and ethical questions within the fields of art, data, science and technology.
She has a special interest in collaboration, participation and media art. She develops audience-focused projects for museums, galleries, universities, corporate contexts, digital space and the public realm. Her curatorial projects have touched on a broad range of subjects including: biomedical science, energy, climate science, photography, addiction and recovery, the psychological impact of organ donation, cosmology, the ways we sense, measure and predict the world, and digital technologies.
Before setting up as an independent curator and member of the ODI team Hannah worked at the Science Museum Group for 17 years, primarily as Head of Science Museum Arts Programme. She regularly speaks and writes on multidisciplinary art and curating practices, and enjoys teaching and lecturing to art, photography and curating students.
Hannah originally trained in Fine Art: Painting at Norwich School of Art and holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art.
As founder of the Data as Culture art programme in 2012, Julie considers the profound impact that the web of data is having on our culture. Having stepped down as co-director she retains a consulting role as Art Associate.
Her role at the ODI is to advocate for the investigation and use of data as an art material in a myriad of ways – critically, theoretically and practically – to reflect on the mission of the organisation and the widespread effect of data in society. In 2018 she was awarded a PhD from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London for her thesis titled Defining Data as an Art Material.
Through her own practice she translates complex processes and data from natural sources into kinetic sculptures, physical objects, images, sound compositions, animations, VR & AR, questioning the use of data and digital technology in how we translate nature.
Julie is the Director of Translating Nature, a digital art production studio, and co-founder of Invisible Cape, and Fine Acts.
Adrian is an award-winning strategic creative thinker, graphic designer and visual artist. His work is reinforced through listening, observation, conversation and collaboration.
At ODI he is responsible for creating the brand and its associated brand family, including that of Data as Culture which is an evolutionary process in parallel with the ODI itself. Particular design creation includes the ODI Summit, ODI’s First Year book and Data as Culture’s interpretative graphic material. He is a director of Philpott Design.
