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Over the past few decades, rapid developments in information systems have created a world overflowing with data. We interact with it every day - when checking the weather forecast, planning a route using mobile maps, or reading news reports - often without a second thought. Clean interfaces, graphs, and statistics seem enough to guarantee that the information we are presented with is true. We accept objectivity as the inherent nature of data and we rarely pause to question it.

But as Gitelman and Jackson (2013) remind us, “raw data is an oxymoron” [3]. Data does not simply appear on its own; it is produced through a series of decisions - how it is collected, categorised, and visualised. Behind each stage is a human creator whose choices shape how the final product is interpreted. Whether deliberate or unconscious, careful or accidental, each decision leaves an imprint that challenges the assumption of neutrality. In this sense, the curator becomes an active agent who determines what is remembered, what is forgotten and ultimately, what is recognised as knowledge.

During the semester, I had the opportunity to delve deeper into the process of data curation, both through course readings and by experiencing data curation firsthand. I navigated through every step of making data - from collection, to categorisation, visualisation, and archiving. The following exhibition is organised into parts to mirror these stages of data production. It brings together the works I submitted throughout the semester, supplemented by concepts and revelations that left a lasting impression on me.

This exhibition draws attention to the often overlooked figure of the human curator behind the data. Every choice they make shapes how the final work is received, and I became increasingly aware of this influence while working on my assignments throughout the semester. That experience revealed just how much intentional decisions, unconscious biases, and practical constraints can shape what the viewer ultimately sees. Yet when we encounter data, we rarely pause to consider who created it, how it was produced, or why it was assembled in a particular way. With this project, I hope to encourage a more critical and attentive approach to the information we encounter every day.