A millennial working in the Art Industry: data analyst, academic and generative artist
A chat about making data look sexy.
Where I see just numbers, Vishal sees stories. When I think of basic tables and standard pie charts for data visualisation, he uses the sketchpad he always brings around to jot down the most appealing and artistic graphs. Vishal Kumar has this one mission: to make data look sexy. And he made a job out of this mission, as Data analyst at Sotheby’s.
A role he “created” himself, he is only a handful of analysts in London that realise the potential of a beautifully visualised data to win a sales pitch. He is a firm believer that “Data is everywhere” and it is just up to us to use it in a meaningful way, making stories out of it. And when he was talking about data, I could not help but notice a certain look in his eyes, comparable to that of a painter when talking about the colours he uses.
Because to Vishal artistic data representation is not just a job, it is a passion. He takes it shapeless, at its rawest form, and thanks to some coding and algorithms, he turns it into knowledge that is a joy for the eyes. He is pursuing his passion further into academia by studying a part-time postgraduate research degree in Data Science and Visualisation at The Bartlett, UCL.
But he believes that neither auction houses nor galleries will support further art price transparency any time soon, as they may reveal too much inside information, and consequently, this may undermine their “controller” status within the art world.
On the other hand, Vishal made me realise something very unique of this very special market: that some auction houses and galleries have survived monarchies, financial crises and major tech disruptions, experiencing little change and still being lucrative. Therefore, there is something about this lack of data that makes the art market so successful, even against all odds.
From the art market to Vishal’s latest art project, the leap was not big. He has partnered up with freelance writer Mansi Singh to delve into the theme of ‘Symmetry’ through data art and words. Speaking of data art, he stressed once again how coding and algorithms are full of potential to create playful and intricate representations.
What did I take away from this chat? Maybe so many new perspectives that summarising them all in a post would not be feasible. One thing stayed with me for sure: that beauty permeates everything, even data. It is really the human touch that can transform anything mechanic and dry into something fascinating and beautiful. You may say that this is the whole point of art in general. Fair enough, I am a slow learner: but had you ever thought about making data sexy before?
Chiara Avino
Feral Content Creator
