Composting and computing: On digital security compositions

Abstract

AbstractMaking sense of digital security practice requires grasping how data are put to use to compose the governing of individuals. Data need to be understood in their becoming, and in their becomingsomethingacross diverse practices. To do this, we suggest embracing two conceptual tropes that jointly articulate the being together of, and in, data compositions:compostingandcomputing. With composting, we approach data as lively entities, and we explore the decaying and recycling processes inside Big Data security. With computing, we approach data as embodied and embodying elements, and we unpack the surveillance of ‘asylum speakers’. Together, composting and computing challenge recurrent images of data. Our conceptual composition takes sound as a necessary sensory counterpoint to popular data visions, notably in light of Ryoji Ikeda's artworks.