Unit 1: How Human Life Becomes Data - Vocabulary Practice

This flashcard set covers the foundational vocabulary and concepts from Unit 1 regarding the epistemology of data, drawing from the theories of Mimi Onuoha, Keith D. Foote, and Wuraola Ademola-Shanu.

Point of Collection

The specific moment identified by Mimi Onuoha (2016) where human experience is made legible as data and where the most consequential political decisions—such as what to exclude—take place.

Data Durability

The concept that data outlives its original intent and stated purpose, leading to the decay of ethical consent as information is reused or repurposed in new contexts.

Asymmetrical Power

The relationship inherent in data collection where the collector holds control over categorization and persistence while the subject rarely controls how they are represented or inferred.

Absence (in Data)

A political state where information that is not collected becomes unknowable within institutional decision-making, carrying as much power as the data that is present.

Structured Data

An ideological form of data, such as spreadsheets or relational databases, that assumes stable categories, predictable behavior, and clearly bounded entities.

Unstructured Data

Data types including text, images, audio, and video that capture messy behavioral traces and resist formal categorization in rows and columns.

Algorithmic Interpretation

The process where power shifts away from explicit categories toward statistical models that identify patterns within technical constraints, often in an opaque or retrospective manner.

Semi-structured Data

The critical terrain mentioned by Wuraola Ademola-Shanu where human meaning, machine readability, and institutional power converge, often in the form of logs, APIs, or JSON.

Metadata

Data about data that serves as a key component of semi-structured information, helping to organize how behavior is interpreted.

Ambient Data Production

The continuous, non-deliberate creation of data as a byproduct of everyday living, such as messaging, browsing, and location tracking.

Schema Rigidity

The fixed structure of databases that determines how behavior must be represented, often favoring institutional needs over human complexity.

Data Literacy (Existential)

A reframing of data knowledge from a technical skill to an existential necessity, based on the fact that human life is a continuous byproduct of data production.

Organizational Power

The gatekeeping practice where the way data is structured determines who can analyze it, what questions can be asked, and which interpretations are possible.