Table Of ContentBeing with Data
For Lena
Being with Data
The Dashboarding of Everyday
Life
Nathaniel Tkacz
polity
Copyright © Nathaniel Tkacz 2022
The right of Nathaniel Tkacz to be identified as Author of this Work has been
asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Polity Press
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Figures viii
Introduction 1
1. Archaeology of Dashboards 30
2. Formatting Cognition 98
3. Formatting Data 141
Coda: Format Politics 182
Notes 189
Bibliography 214
Index 230
Acknowledgements
This book began as a conversation with my former colleague Will
Davies. It became something more through a project we schemed
up together, ‘Interrogating the Dashboard: Data, Indicators
and Decision-Making’, which received financial support from
the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) in the UK (ES/
M00077X/1). I would like to thank Will, Ana Gross, Jamie Bartlett
and Carl Miller from DEMOS and the Open Work design team
(Kai, Lizzie and Dan) for being part of this project. Through Jamie
and Carl, I was able to develop a relationship with people from the
software company Qlik and I would like to thank everyone there for
offering their time and thoughts. I would especially like to thank
David Bolton, who arranged access to key personnel and clients.
A second set of conversations began when João Porto de
Albuquerque became my colleague in the Centre for Interdisciplinary
Methodologies (CIM) at the University of Warwick. I have benefited
greatly from his kindness and friendship and from his opening new
worlds for me. The parts of the book set in Brazil would not be
possible without him. Funding from the Belmont Forum, ESRC
(ES/S006982/1) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de
São Paulo (FAPESP) for the project ‘Waterproofing Data: Engaging
Stakeholders in Sustainable Flood Risk Governance for Urban
Resilience’ enabled us to visit Brazil regularly. Flávio Horita provided
early research assistance in the situation room in Cemaden. Following
Flávio, Mário Henrique da Mata Martins joined ‘Waterproofing
Data’ as a postdoc and became my main collaborator. While the
intellectual framing of chapter 3 on ‘Formatting Data’ is my own, it
draws on empirical work we did together and often with Mário taking
the lead. My gratitude also goes to Maria Alexandra Cunha, based
Acknowledgements vii
at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, and Vangelis Pitidis
at Warwick, for offering a lot of general support with ‘Waterproofing
Data’. During my visits to the situation room in Cemaden I made
several new friends, including Liana Anderson, Rachel Trajber,
Victor Marchezini, Conrado Rudorff and Giovanni Dolif Neto.
Thanks for the lunches and dinners, the desk space and making me
feel less of an outsider! Research in the situation room would not
have been possible without the support of the many specialists who
work in the room or support its operation.
For inviting me to share work in progress, I would like to thank
Louise Amoore, Rob Kitchin, Richard Rogers, Jonathan Gray, Helen
Kennedy, Robert Cowley, Scott McQuire and Theo Röhle. I am also
grateful to the Digital Humanities Department at King’s College
London and the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo for hosting
me as Visiting Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Professor, respec-
tively. Thanks in addition to the staff at the Coventry Transport
Museum.
I am fortunate to have excellent and inspiring colleagues in CIM
at the University of Warwick, but special thanks go to Nerea Calvillo
and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa for being my writing companions.
Celia Lury read the first draft and provided very insightful feedback.
Since we first met as PhD students in Melbourne, Michael Dieter has
been a constant friend and intellectual inspiration.
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers at Polity for their
feedback. The editorial team of Mary Savigar and Stephanie Homer
were a pleasure to work with, and thanks to Mary for reading the
manuscript with an editor’s eye.
Since 2012, I have made a home in the English West Midlands,
10,000 miles from where I was raised on the outskirts of Melbourne,
Australia. This life would not be possible without the love and
ongoing support of my partner, Mia. Thanks also to Ernie, Lena and
Dominic for reminding me that working in front of a computer all
day can be very boring.
Figures
0.0 Garmin Vivoactive 3 running interface 3
0.1 Screenshot of Qlik dashboard 8
0.2 Photo of Qlik dashboard 9
0.3 S creenshot of image search query results for *dashboard* 10
1.0 Discursive spaces 32
1.1 C oupé horse-drawn coach, Brewster & Company, New
York, c.1860 36
1.2 Benz Patent Motorwagen 44
1.3 Daimler Motor Carriage 44
1.4 É mile Levassor driving early model Panhard et
Levassor, c.1891 46
1.5 1895 model Panhard et Levassor 46
1.6 1898 Daimler Phaeton dashboard 47
1.7 1920s Model T Ford interior 51
1.8 1 925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Jonckheere Coupe interior 52
1.9 1954 Triumph TR2 dashboard and front interior 53
1.10 C itroën DS on display at the Paris Motor Show, 1955 54
1.11 Citroën DS interior, 1955 55
1.12 Components of a management decision system 76
1.13 D isplay system for the management decision system 76
1.14 S ample output from the management decision system 77
1.15 Tiers of management decision 80
2.0 Dr Foster website landing page 107
2.1 Symbolic tables and bit-stuffed pointers 117
2.2 Data table 117
2.3 Anscombe’s Quartet in Qlik training manual 126
2.4 Overview of Qlik visualizations 127
3.0 The Cemaden situation room 142
