XXI

The collage consist of two photographs: the one on the left depicts the thighs of a white person with blood running down on the insides. In the background there is a white wall. The right photograph shows an aisle in a server room with a door in the end. The floor of the aisle is covered with white ventilation grills, the server racks on both sides of the aisle are black.

Blood and Data Flows

Contributed by Johanna Levy, 2018

Keywords: Collage, Flows, Data

Blood and Data Flows juxtaposes two spaces which, apart from their visual organization, appear to be inherently different and unrelated at first sight: the intimate space of my thighs and an unknown server room. However, when taking a closer look, it becomes evident that they share crucial characteristics: both spaces are highly surveilled and often, the materialities of blood and data flows remain invisible.

The collage explores the entanglements between flows of menstrual blood and digital data, and aims to make visible their materialities. Through self-tracking technologies such as menstrual apps – the topic of my research project – users create vast amounts of digital data which are stored and processed in rooms like the one shown, thus establishing intimate interconnections between blood and data flows.