Design: Datacatcher

Datacatchers are custom-built, location-aware devices that stream messages about the area they are in. Derived from a large number of ‘big data’ sources, the messages simultaneously draw attention to the socio-political topology of the lived environment and to the nature of big data itself. The Studio produced 130 bespoke devices as part of our ongoing programme to explore how people appropriate and make sense of open-ended designs. They are research devices that are designed both to embody our conjectures about certain issues and to act as tools helping us to further investigate peoples’ orientations around those issues. We deployed the Datacatchers to volunteers recruited at local markets and car-boot sales, and commissioned filmmakers to produce short video documentaries of their experiences.