Jul 22, 2021
Each year, there are one or two books that deeply resonate with
me and become sticky in that I’m thinking about the book often,
bringing it up in conversations, and sending out unsolicited
recommendations for executives and researchers in my network to
check it out. Jer Thorp’s “Living in Data: A Citizen’s Guide to a
Better Information Future” was that book for me in 2021 so I was
delighted to host Jer for a conversation on the OODAcast.
Jer Thorp is an artist, writer and teacher living in New York
City. He is best known for designing the algorithm to place the
nearly 3,000 names on the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan. Jer was the
New York Times’ first Data Artist in Residence, is a National
Geographic Explorer, and in 2017 and 2018 served as the Innovator
in Residence at the Library of Congress. Jer is one of the world’s
foremost data artists, and is a leading voice for the ethical use
of big data.
Jer is like the Indiana Jones of data, thriving not only in the
realm of data analysis, but traveling the world to explore new ways
to bring data into our local and global decision-making process. In
this OODAcast, we go deep on a variety of issues to include:
- Jer’s origin story and career experience
- The risks of data bias, adjacencies, and exclusion
- The role of data in understanding our relationship with
nature - How we envision and build better futures
- Working as citizens to derive benefit from our own data to
improve our lives - Lots of great stories about his data adventures and lessons
learned along the way including how he was almost killed by a
hippo
Additional Bio Details:
Jer’s data-inspired artwork has been shown around the world,
including most recently in New York’s Times Square, at the Museum
of Modern Art in Manhattan, at the Ars Electronica Center in
Austria, and at the National Seoul Museum in Korea. His work has
also appeared in a wide variety of publications, including
Scientific American, The New Yorker, Popular Science, Fast Company,
Business Week, Popular Science, Discover, WIRED and The Harvard
Business Review.
Jer’s talks on TED.com have been watched by more than a
half-million people. He is a frequent speaker at high profile
events such as PopTech, and The Aspen Ideas Festival. Recently, he
has spoken about his work at MIT’s Media Lab, The American Museum
of Natural History, MoMA, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in
Pasadena.
Jer is a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and an alumnus of the
World Economic Foundation’s Global Agenda Council on Design and
Innovation. He is an adjunct Professor in New York University’s
renowned Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), and is the
Co-Founder of The Office for Creative Research. In 2015, Canadian
Geographic named Jer one of Canada’s Greatest Explorers.
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