Sandeep Mertia - Lives of Data
b'In the 21st episode, I speak to Sandeep Mertia, PhD Candidate,\\xa0Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University on his new edited volume Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from\\xa0India published by the Institute of Network Cultures (2021). The edited volume brings together chapters from fifteen\\xa0interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners who provide cutting analyses on India\\u2019s current computational culture encapsulated by big data and its historical and emergent dynamics on India\\u2019s politics and society. The volume emerged out of discussions and workshops at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) Sarai Programme. The volume offers us critical ways of considering and analyzing India\\u2019s big data moment and how it manifests relationally through different political and cultural nodes in India\\u2019s socio-political context. The conversation begins by asking Mertia about the origins of the volume before unpacking how data became so powerful in India. Next, we cover how data derives value from its relational nature or the lineages, affinities, networks and layers that add to data\\u2019s value in the Indian context. Mertia then historicizes data in India going back to the 1950s to trace how distinct domestic computing histories led to the current one. The conversation then moves to understand the role data practitioners play and whether it makes sense to view technological progress through their stand alone perch or collaboratively. We end with some thoughts on specific chapters including the last few that use ethnographic accounts to map the everyday aspects of data in India today and what Mertia thinks could be India\\u2019s data future.'