Performing with the database: art geography approaches to research on the data, trade, place, values nexus.

The social and environmental consequences of what has been termed the 'prolific present' are increasingly well documented. Overflowing and abundant, material and intangible commodities are arriving from factories, onto container ships, into warehouses, onto screens, into shops and through homes, into charity shops, recycling yards and waste dumps. An important part of managing and growing this flow of 'stuff' is the capturing, measuring and computational valuing of our consumption practices. How these data processes are constructed, with whose values and to whose profit, and with what impact and to whose detriment, is often obsfuscated or hidden from public scrutiny (Pascale, 2015). If these processes are unknown to us, how can we make informed decisions on how we participate in them? Understanding and challenging the deeply connected and largely invisible relationships between data, trade, places and values has thus become an urgent matter of concern.

My practice-led PhD 'Museum of Contemporary Commodities (MoCC): a research performance', combined social art practice with geographic methods to investigate connections between data, commodities, and behaviour in contemporary capitalism. Cultural and arts activisms can use humour, creativity and conversation to draw publics into participating in these important debates, in lighter and less confrontational ways than traditional information giving approaches (Cook & Woodyer, 2012). In turn, involvement in skilfully constructed, research-led social practice based arts activities can provoke deeper thought and even perceptual change for peers and participants, on the way trade justice is constituted, and our potential agencies as change-making consumers and 'curators' of the future heritage of our contemporary commodity cultures (Kester 2005, Crutchlow, 2019).

The primary aim of this fellowship is to consolidate the knowledge and insights I have gained through my PhD, and share them with academic audiences. Using MoCC as a case study, I will develop a series of conceptual and methodological accounts of the research design, delivery and impacts that will contribute to advancing knowledge in human geography. Publications will focus on the transdisciplinary and contingent nature of the research as a direct response to the 'datafication' of the social by surveillance captialism (van Dijk 2014).

In addition, I will use my doctoral project as a springboard for developing my profile and experience as an independent researcher crossing the fields of art and social science. Building on MoCC's collaborative methods, I will work with other scholars, artists and technologists to create a series of more broadly accessible outcomes from research findings. A process that will also instigate new connections and alliances to resource future projects:
- A short residency at LSE's JUST AI (https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/our-work/just-ai/), offers the opportunity to apply my knowledges in the context of a new humanities based AI and ethics project. I will contribute to the development of public engagement frameworks, and deliver public facing outputs through the JUST AI platform such as blog posts and video essays.
- Transmediale Berlin (https://transmediale.de/) brings together international artists, researchers, activists, and thinkers to 'create a space for critical reflection on cultural transformation from a post-digital perspective'. Participation in the 2021 event will situate my work in an international context, offering significant opportunities to reflect on my research practice, grow professional networks and germinate new project ideas.
- A collaboratively developed, art-activist-scholar publication will further explore MoCC project themes, and share its concepts and methods in a lively, rigorous and accessible form to wider academic and arts audiences.