exhibition call for proposals

Data Through Design (DxD) is accepting proposals for its 10th annual exhibition, scheduled for March 2027 at BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn, NY.

DxD is an annual exhibition celebrating tangible and multimedia expressions of data in general, and New York City’s Open Data in particular. It provides space for creative engagement with data and for new perspectives on, and understanding of, its role in our society. DxD presents work in a wide range of media and formats such as digital, analog, physical, performance, sound works, walks, installations, creative coding, participatory mapping, drawings, and more.

At the 10-year mark of DxD’s history, we’re thinking about reflections, reverberations, and the arc of data over time. We’re examining the past and contemplating our future as we consider the role that data plays in our lives and in the current moment.

As we meditate on the past, the present, and the future, we are looking for projects that relate to the evidence of time. We are inspired by: footprints, traces, drag paths, scars, sleep lines, and the markers of change. We are interested in temporal mirrors and kaleidoscopes, messages from the past and future, fractals of time, visuals of scale (Powers of Ten, 1977), forebodings and good omens.

In conjunction with DxD’s 10th anniversary, artists may also choose to respond to a previous DxD theme and address it in light of time: how have datasets expanded, shrunk, been altered or reformed in the past 10 years? How does our data archive the progress of time? What did open data mean then and what can it mean in the future?

As we reflect on DxD’s own history, this year we particularly encourage past artists to apply, in addition to artists who are new to DxD. Alumni artists might choose to revisit their past projects to give them new life, respond to previous themes in new ways, or apply the theme of time to a previous DxD project by a different artist.

Data Through Design (DxD) is an annual exhibition featuring artworks that creatively analyze, interpret, and interrogate data made available in New York City’s Open Data portal.

We are looking for proposals that consider the 2027 theme of time, that surface unique stories or original perspectives through the lens of data, and that show how NYC Open Data will be used. Please see some samples of past exhibitions on our website.

Artists are expected to reference or use at least one NYC Open Data dataset in their project. Other data, including data derived from novel and experimental collection systems, are also welcome. We’re interested in participatory data collection; in radical and cognitive mapping; in data that is represented or experienced through time, sound, and the senses.

As part of our review process, we consider the clarity of your proposal (both the written description and the mockup designs), the feasibility of the project, and your past experience making creative work or working as an artist. Proposals will be assessed using our rubric.