Conference Agenda

This experimental session brings the energy and creativity of the Australian Internet Observatory’s recent Data Donation Activation at the 2024/25 Woodford Folk Festival to the AoIR community. By recreating elements of this interactive public installation, we invite AoIR delegates to experience the utility of data donation as both a research methodology and as catalyst for critical public engagement with digital platforms. The session will engage participants in the process of donating digital data, reflecting on how this practice can be adapted and extended to foster conversations about algorithms, identities, and shared cultures. The session combines live demonstration, participant interaction, and reflective discussion.

Our facilitators will introduce data donation methods run during the Woodford Folk Festival, a major national music and culture event in Queensland, Australia. Drawing inspiration from a similar initiative in the Netherlands, we invited festival-goers to anonymously donate data such as Meta Ad Preferences, TikTok usage, and Netflix watch patterns. These anonymised donations fed into a secure research database while also powering creative outputs, such as digital tarot readings and the Wordfordia Forest, which visualised participants’ data as unique, whimsical creatures representing their platform identities.

Participants will experience the data donation process firsthand by contributing their own anonymised digital data (or simulated datasets if preferred). Facilitators will guide attendees through all steps of the data donation process, offering playful yet critical interpretations of their digital identities based on the donated data. The demonstration will culminate in the construction of a collaborative AoIR Forest that visualises participants’ platform data as unique creatures, representing shared values, habits, and cultures within the group.

The session will pause regularly to reflect on the methodologies and materials used, encouraging participants to consider how these approaches could be adapted or extended within their own research or public engagement work. The open-source nature of the work provides ample resources for participants to remix and implement in their own contexts. The discussion will focus on the potential of creative data engagement to foster critical reflection on platform algorithms, build connections between diverse communities through shared digital habits, and innovate new methods for participatory data collection and research dissemination.

Participants will leave the session with a deeper appreciation of data donation as a research and engagement tool, access to open-source materials for replication or adaptation, and a richer understanding of how creative methodologies can illuminate the complexities of digital platforms and their impact on everyday life.

We will supply all necessary materials (tarot cards, temporary tattoo printers, instruction cards), and only require a flat-floor collaborative space with tables suitable for groups of around 5-8 people, and a standard digital projector for displaying slides and the AoIR forest website. Participants can participate using a phone, tablet or laptop device.