Refracting Data Work: Between Art and Policy

Marialaura Ghidini is a curator, lecturer and researcher with a particular interest in how digital technologies influence human behaviours and relationships with the surrounding environment. Since her PhD, she has explored the impact of online and digital curating on cultural production, access to culture and audience engagement. Her curated online projects include the platform or-bits.com (2009–2015), #exstrange (2017), the archive curating.online (2021) and We Are All Users, Till We Are Not (2025) on MACTE Digital. Marialaura has lectured at various universities, including Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology (2015-2021), and has presented her work in academic journals, books, conferences and workshops. Since 2015, she is co-editor of the publishing series Silicon Plateau.

paulie/paul anthony george is a researcher who uses digital ethnography, speculative design and design research, studying Internet memes, online behaviour, protest and dissent in India and other parts of the world for their doctoral research. They also use game design as a way to understand how complex systems work and don’t work for some, along the lines of accessibility, disability, neuro divergence and being othered. Using design research as a carrier bag, their work has taken place through conversations with students while working at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. They have also worked with Design Beku, making using of illustration, animation, signage for data-repositories and a satirical digital play, as a way of translating research as practice.

Priyam Vadaliya is a senior associate at Aapti Institute. She is an inter-disciplinary design researcher exploring the intersection of design, policy, community building and collective action. She is passionate about systems-thinking and participatory design shaping her approach towards problem-solving and innovation. Priyam plays the unique role of a facilitator and a co-creator in multidisciplinary collaborations and has experience working across different sectors such as environmental conservation, healthcare, education and employability.

Mila T Samdub researches the aesthetics, technics and political economy of digital government in India. He holds fellowships at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, the Open Future Foundation and the CyberBRICS project at FGV-Rio. He previously worked as a curator at Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, where his practice focused on the intersections of art, activism and technology