Clarissa Ribeiro: Metachanges Painting: On Datamancy and Performative Data-Visualization

While living in a city with 10 million people a century ago seemed inconceivable, by 2018, 33 urban areas met the definition of a ‘megacity.’ Utilizing weather data from the Open Weather Map for 30 megacities listed by the World Economic Forum, the installation ‘Metachanges Painting’ (2024) plays with the materialization of meta-forms — the idea that one image can generate a cluster of meanings. ‘Metachanges’ in the concept of metadata refers to detectable ‘changes of changes.’ Inviting the audience to become performatively aware of global temperature differences, ‘Metachanges Painting’ contributes to climate awareness. By touching the screen to draw shapes that change color with live weather data, simultaneously triggering sound as weather data sonification, the work engages viewers in ‘datamancy’ — actively creating meaning from available information, akin to reading the palm of one’s hand. Moreover, by exploring the art object as ‘behaviorable in its history, futurible in its structure, trigger in its effect’ (Roy Ascott, 1968), this paper discusses how meta-forms resulting from generative processes entangled with audience participatory actions can engage in ‘performative data-visualization.’ The work explores Technoetic Arts aesthetics by revisiting Ascott’s ‘Change Paintings’ series from 1963 to 1967, and the discussion aligns with Ascott’s concepts of ‘Behaviorables and Futurables,’ exploring how ‘prefiguration’ (information embedded in raw data) delineates futuribles.”