Though it may be the most powerful force in society today, data lacks a unified definition. Present in every moment, transaction, event, and interaction, the one thing most people can agree on is that it shows no trend toward obsolescence. Rather, the data ecosystem we have created now sustains us as much as we sustain it. 

Giorgia Lupi and co-author Phillip Cox—a former associate at Pentagram—have released a seminal text that offers an accessible entry point to thinking more critically about the data we produce, consume, interpret, and manipulate daily. Their book, Speak Data: Artists, Scientists, Thinkers, and Dreamers on How We Live Our Lives in Numbers, explores a range of perspectives on data from experts across disciplines. These individuals don’t think of themselves as data-practicioners, but each holds a distinct point of view of data’s impact in their field. Throughout 17 interviews with figures like James Clear, Seth Goodin, Refik Anadol, Eric Topol, and Paola Antonelli, Lupi and Cox seek to expand data’s lexicon for accessing the full complexity of human ideas, stories, and behaviors.

Data’s pervasiveness means it holds multiple definitions, all of which must be contended with if we are to understand data’s full potential in this hyper-complex, ever-changing world. Speak Data presents this complexity by revealing data as personal, nuanced, and human made. Lupi’s own conceptual and data-driven illustrations invite the reader to consider data as personal, slow, and handcrafted—a far more expansive vision than rigid numbers and speeding through algorithms. Each interviewee was also invited to complete the statement: ”Data is _____.” Whether the answer is “a form of memory,” “recorded feedback,” or “irrefutable points of drama in a real story,” data’s definition is far from intimidating or abstract. Data becomes something that can stir emotions, divulge patterns, and tell stories—an accessible lens that anyone can use to better understand the world and each other.

The book was conceptualized out of Lupi and Cox’s firm belief that data is a language. Like words, data is an abstraction of real events, people, places, things. It helps us express patterns, acts as a filter for observations, a tool for measurement, a base map for representation, and a medium for expression. It is malleable and responsive to the speaker, changing depending on what the speaker wants to say, the accent with which they speak, and the times in which they live.