DATA CULTURE: navigating the complexity of cultural systems

The next 3 December 2025, of 18:00 a 20:00, we will celebrate in the Edificio del Rayo Verde (Teatinos Campus Extension, University of Malaga) the seminar “Data culture: navigating the complexity of cultural systems”.”.

We will talk about cultural analytics, networks, visualisation and data ethics applied to museums, media and archives, and how these approaches allow us to rethink cultural institutions as complex systems.

Participants:

  • Bárbara Romero Ferrón, Postdoctoral researcher at the Provenance Lab (Leuphana University).
  • Maria Ortiz Tello, D. in Art History and MA in Digital Humanities.
  • Ángel Lumbreras Fernández, Pre-doctoral researcher on contract at the University of Malaga.

Activity organised by the Master's Degree in Social Developments in Artistic Culture (MDSCA), the Telefónica-UMA Chair, iArtHis_Lab and the project Complexhibit.

📅 3 December 2025 📍 Green Lightning Building (Teatinos Campus Extension, UMA) ⏰ 18:00-20:00

#C DataCulture #AculturalAnalytics #HigitalHumanities #Museums #iArtHisLab #CUMATelephoneChair #Complexhibit

DESCRIPTION

The seminar «Data culture: navigating the complexity of cultural systems».» aims to provide cultural professionals and researchers with a critical and practical framework for working with data in museums, media and archives. Based on cultural analytics, network analysis and information visualisation, the course proposes understanding cultural institutions as complex systems in which works, audiences, infrastructures and decisions mediated by data circulate.

Specific objectives include:

  • Introduce the basics of cultural analyticsWhat data do museums, archives and media generate and manage today, and how can they become an object of research and a management tool?.

  • Exploring cultural networks (of works, artists, institutions, publics, discourses) and show how their representation through graphs allows us to detect patterns, hidden relationships and power dynamics.

  • Working with visualisations as ways of thinking: not just as “pretty pictures”, but as analytical tools that help to ask new questions about collections, content and audiences.

  • Opening a space for ethical reflection around the extraction, processing and circulation of cultural data: biases, algorithmic opacities, privacy, copyright and institutional responsibilities.

In a world marked by platforms, algorithms and economies of attention, this seminar reinforces the vocation of the Chair as a space for thought and experimentation on digital culture, The report also helps to situate data not only as a technical resource, but also as an object of intellectual and political debate.

The activity is also part of the project Complexhibit, one of the research axes of the Chair, functioning as a laboratory where to test models of analysis of complex exhibition systems, knowledge graphs and semantic models applied to heritage and cultural content. In this way, the seminar contributes to articulating the mission of the Chair: to build bridges between advanced research, technological innovation and critical reflection on contemporary transformations in culture.