INFO
LINK LIST
Information Design – People, Studios, Labs, Institutions & Resources
People
Artists & Designers
- Mindy Seu – Researcher and designer exploring digital archives and feminist internet histories.
- Lauren McCarthy – Artist examining social relationships in the age of automation and surveillance.
- Ben Grosser – Creates software art that disrupts platforms and questions metrics-driven culture.
- Sarah Friend – Artist and software developer whose work explores trust, decentralization, and digital identity.
- Sarah Ciston – Combines machine learning and poetry to challenge structures of power and voice.
- Rosa Menkman – Researcher and artist known for her work on glitch aesthetics and resolution theory.
- Tega Brain – Environmental engineer and artist working on the weirdness of data systems and ecology.
- Constant Dullaart – Explores digital identity and manipulation of social platforms.
- Kim Asendorf – Net artist working with algorithms, compression, and generative systems.
- Casey Reas – Co-creator of Processing, artist working at the intersection of software and generative form.
- Zach Blas – Artist-theorist focused on biometric surveillance and queerness.
- Trevor Paglen – Visualizes invisible power structures: surveillance, military, AI.
- Aram Bartholl – Creates interventions connecting digital systems to public space.
- Anna Engelhardt – Critical media artist researching post-Soviet cyberwarfare and infrastructure.
- Sophie Dyer – Works at the intersection of feminist OSINT and collaborative mapping.
- Julian Oliver – Critical engineer building tools to expose and challenge technological power.
- Burak Arikan – Works with network maps to reveal power relations in social and economic systems. See also Graph Commons.
- Paolo Cirio – Hacktivist artist tackling surveillance, privacy, and data capitalism.
- Nathalie Miebach – Translates meteorological and climate data into sculptures and musical scores.
- Vladan Joler – Maps the anatomy of technological systems, including AI and supply chains.
- Minjeong An – Visualizes emotional or subjective ideas in forms that feel objective, structured, and mapped.
- Mimi Onuoha – Artist working on missing datasets and what remains uncounted.
- Joana Moll – Artist and researcher on the materiality of the internet, data tracking, and its ecological cost.
- Adam Harvey – Researcher and artist investigating face recognition datasets and computer vision (Exposing.ai).
- Kyle McDonald – Artist working with code, computer vision, and machine learning.
- Memo Akten – Artist and researcher exploring machine learning, perception, and meaning.
- Ryoji Ikeda – Composer and artist turning pure data into large-scale audiovisual installations.
Data Visualization & Information Designers
- Nicholas Felton – Pioneer of personal data visualization, creator of the "Feltron Reports."
- Joost Grootens – Book designer specializing in complex data and atlases.
- Dietmar Offenhuber – Focuses on urban data, visual evidence, and accountability.
- Moritz Stefaner – Independent designer working on the "truth and beauty" of data visualization.
- Giorgia Lupi – Information designer and advocate of "data humanism," co-author of Dear Data.
- Stefanie Posavec – Designer and artist working with data in hand-crafted, analog, and participatory ways.
- Federica Fragapane – Information designer known for organic, editorial visual languages.
- Nadieh Bremer – Data visualization designer creating intricate, bespoke data art.
- Shirley Wu – Creates playful, unconventional data visualizations and data art.
- Mona Chalabi – Data journalist and illustrator making statistics personal and accessible.
- Jer Thorp – Data artist and writer on data, place, and public life (Living in Data).
- Fernanda Viégas & Martin Wattenberg – Pioneers of visualization as social and artistic practice.
- Ben Fry – Co-creator of Processing, founder of the studio Fathom.
- Jan Willem Tulp – Data experience designer creating custom visualizations.
- Lisa Charlotte Muth – Data visualization designer and writer, known for clear guides on charts and color.
Researchers & Writers
- Catherine D'Ignazio – Scholar and artist, co-author of Data Feminism (with Lauren Klein).
- Marian Dörk – Researcher in visualization of cultural collections and critical data practices.
- Manuel Lima – Designer and author on networks and tree diagrams, founder of VisualComplexity.
- Alberto Cairo – Journalist and educator, author of How Charts Lie and The Functional Art.
- Isabel Meirelles – Designer and author of Design for Information.
- Lev Manovich – Theorist of software, digital culture, and cultural analytics.
- Kate Crawford – Scholar of the social and political implications of AI (Atlas of AI).
- Shannon Mattern – Writer on media, infrastructure, archives, and urban intelligence.
Studios
- Studio Folder – Milan-based design and research studio working at the intersection of visual culture and political data.
- Accurat – Data-driven research, design, and innovation studio from Milan and New York.
- Fathom – Boston-based information design studio working on complex scientific and cultural data.
- Interactive Things – Zurich studio for data visualization and interaction design.
- Studio NAND – Berlin studio for design, technology, and science communication.
- webkid – Berlin studio for interactive data visualization and web applications.
- CLEVER°FRANKE – Utrecht studio for data-driven experiences and installations.
- LUST – The Hague studio for "process-based" design between graphic design, data, and media.
- Moniker – Amsterdam studio making playful critical work about the internet and online behavior.
- Superflux – Speculative design studio working on climate, technology, and possible futures.
- Stamen – Studio for maps, cartography, and data visualization.
- Periscopic – Socially conscious data visualization studio.
- Kiln – London studio known for interactive data stories and maps.
- Bureau Oberhaeuser – Hamburg studio for information design and interfaces.
Research Labs & Investigative Groups
- Forensic Architecture – Investigative research agency using spatial and data analysis to uncover human rights violations.
- DensityDesign Lab – Research lab focused on information design for complex social, political, and cultural phenomena.
- Tactical Tech – Berlin-based collective working on data, privacy, and digital literacy through exhibitions and toolkits.
- The Pudding – Collective publishing visual essays that explain ideas through data-driven storytelling.
- metaLAB (at) Harvard & Berlin – Interdisciplinary lab exploring digital humanities, arts, and design as research.
- UCLAB, FH Potsdam – Urban Complexity Lab researching visualization of cultural and urban data.
- MIT Senseable City Lab – Research on how data and sensing change cities.
- Data + Feminism Lab, MIT – Uses data and computation to work toward gender and racial equity.
- Center for Spatial Research, Columbia – Combines design, architecture, and humanities through mapping and data.
- Barabási Lab – Network science lab with a strong visual practice.
- Knowing Machines – Research project tracing the histories and politics of AI training datasets.
- Critical Infrastructure Lab – Research on the politics of internet infrastructure.
- Bellingcat – Open-source investigation collective, with guides and tools for OSINT.
Journalistic Teams
Festivals
- Ars Electronica – Linz festival for art, technology, and society, with the Prix Ars Electronica.
- transmediale – Berlin festival for art and digital culture.
- CTM Festival – Berlin festival for adventurous music and art, held alongside transmediale.
- Impakt – Utrecht festival for critical media culture.
- KIKK Festival – Namur festival for digital and creative cultures.
- MUTEK – Festival for digital creativity and electronic music.
- Sónar+D – Barcelona's conference on creativity and technology within Sónar.
- Chaos Communication Congress – Hacker conference of the Chaos Computer Club with talks on surveillance, data, and society.
- Disruption Network Lab – Berlin conferences on technology, power, and whistleblowing.
Conferences
- IEEE VIS – Main academic conference for visualization research, including the VISAP arts program.
- Information+ – Interdisciplinary conference on information design and visualization.
- Outlier – Data Visualization Society's community conference.
- xCoAx – Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X
Museums
Galleries & Art Spaces
Online Platforms, Blogs & Newsletters
Tools & Libraries
- D3.js – JavaScript library for custom data visualization.
- Observable – Notebooks and framework for data exploration and visualization.
- Processing / p5.js – Creative coding environments for visual arts.
- three.js – 3D graphics in the browser.
- Vega-Lite – Grammar of interactive graphics.
- RAWGraphs – Open-source tool for unconventional chart types (by DensityDesign).
- Datawrapper – Quick, accessible charts and maps.
- Flourish – Interactive visualizations and stories without code.
- QGIS – Open-source geographic information system.
- Gephi – Network analysis and visualization.
- kepler.gl – Large-scale geospatial visualization.
Data Sources
- Our World in Data – Research and data on global problems.
- Gapminder – Data and tools for a fact-based worldview.
- Data Is Plural – Weekly newsletter of interesting datasets.
- GovData – Open data portal of German public administration.
- Destatis – German Federal Statistical Office.
- Eurostat – Statistical office of the European Union.
- Wikidata – Free, collaborative knowledge base.
- OpenStreetMap – Open geodata of the world.
Awards & Open Calls