Join us for this workshop led by Dorsey Kaufmann, part of Digital Ghosts exhibition programme.
Come along to this workshop to experience “digitial ghosts” with artist Dorsey Kaufmann to discover for yourself how data visulisation can help us to better understand archives and their cultural significance.
This workshop explores “digital ghosts”—data that evolves, disappears, or behaves unpredictably. Led by artist Dorsey Kaufmann, whose work transforms Scottish web archive data into immersive visual experiences, you’ll get to examine how visual design can reveal patterns of digital disappearance and question how cultural memory is shaped by what is saved and what is lost.
We’ll begin with an exhibition walk-through of interactive visualisations addressing absence and missing-ness in data, then create our own visual metaphors using cyanotype, light, and other tactile media to illuminate archival gaps.
Designed for those working with non-linear or messy data, the session invites participants to bring questions and ideas for engaging with both presence and absence. Together, we’ll examine how archival choices shape what is remembered or forgotten, challenging the notion of data as whole or objective and reflecting on the narratives hidden in what’s lost or never captured.
This workshop is partially funded by the National Library of Scotland, the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, with support from the Institute for Design Informatics, Inspace and Edinburgh Futures Institute.
This workshop is part of the Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 6 – 15 November 2025. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.
Workshop details
Facilitator: Dorsey Kaufmann
Date: Sat 15 Nov 2025
Time: 13:00-14:30 | Free/Ticketed
Location: 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
Activity Duration: Approx. 90mins
This workshop has limited capacity and so registration is preferred. Participants with tickets are guaranteed entry, drop-in attendance is welcome, but will be on a first come first served basis.
Venue Access features: Accessible toilets, Assistance dogs welcome, Baby changing facilities, Seating, Step-free access, Wheelchair accessible
If you have any enquiries about the events and the venue, please contact us at designinformatics@ed.ac.uk .
Please note this workshop will be photographed, and may be used for future marketing, promotional or archive purposes. If you would prefer not to be photographed, please let us know at the event.
Facilitator
Dorsey Kaufmann is a data visualisation designer, artist, and researcher who creates interactive data interfaces and participatory art installations. Employing digital design, data visualisation, code, sculpture, video, and technology; her work embodies the intimate and personal aspects of data collection and use – concerning people’s health, homes, local environment, and body politics. Her research further examines the use of visualisation as a creative medium to increase data literacy and shape human cognition, attitudes and behaviour in relation to the natural environment (see Nature article).
Supported by
