ZHAO ZHOU - DATA CLOUT

Data Clout is an investigative apparatus exploring how data shapes contemporary digital culture. In an era where personalized algorithms act like digital parental homes, protective yet restrictive environments we cannot escape, Data Clout offers an alternative laboratory for understanding the flow of information. Unlike genuine public spaces, where social contracts enable collective discourse, today’s digital landscape confines us to echo chambers and ideological brigades. These algorithmic homes prevent us from using digital space as the open environment it could be.

Seven transparent pillars equipped with tablets form a research environment for observing unfiltered global news via RSS feeds—one of the last direct channels before algorithmic mediation. Each pillar represents a world region. When an article is published, the system releases an air vortex ring that rises through the corresponding pillar, while the tablet updates with real-time data visualization. This apparatus invites visitors to step outside algorithmic constraints and examine information distribution patterns directly. By providing tools for observation without predetermined conclusions, Data Clout opens space for individual analysis and potential collective discourse—restoring agency in our relationship with information.

Zhao Zhou (NL) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice investigates air-based sensory disruption and spatial experience. Trained in Interior Architecture at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, he creates installations using arrays of air vortex generators to craft moments of suspension where tactile and auditory perception gently eclipse sight. His work advocates for techno-spatial autonomy by exposing and reconfiguring the hidden constraints of built environments. Exhibitions include GOGBOT Festival, SEE DJERBA, and Dutch institutions such as BRUTUS and Kunstfort.