About the Project
How do we engage with data in a post-truth society? Data Stories is an EPSRC-funded project that aims to find out. Through an approach drawing from the disciplines of machine learning, game design, crowdsourcing, social and political sciences, creative writing, visual arts, and more, we aim to explore how people engage with data, by making it more relevant, more interactive, and more easily shared.
In the post-truth society we live in, experts must find novel ways to bring hard, factual data to citizens. Data must entertain as well as inform, and excite as well as educate. It must be built with sharing through social channels in mind and become part of our everyday activities and interactions with others. Data Stories will look at novel frameworks and technologies for bringing data to people through art, games, and storytelling. It will examine the impact that varying levels of localisation, topicalisation, participation, and shareability have on the engagement of the general public with factual evidence substantiated by different forms of digital content derived and repurposed from a variety of sources. It will deliver the tools and guidance that community and civic groups need to achieve broader participation and support for their initiatives at local and national level, and empower artists, designers, statisticians, analysts, and journalists to communicate with data in inspiring, informative ways.
About Us
The Principal Investigator of Data Stories is Professor Elena Simperl, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and part of the Web Science Institute. We are working with a number of partners including the University of Southampton and the Open Data Institute. For a full list of partners, read more here.
