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About the project
Despite being one of the most influential forces shaping modern society, data still resists a single, unified definition. It exists within every moment, exchange, event, and interaction, and while interpretations may vary, there is a shared understanding that it is not fading in relevance. Instead, the data ecosystem we have built now supports us just as much as we contribute to sustaining it.
Giorgia Lupi, alongside co-author Phillip Cox—a former associate at Pentagram—has published an important work that provides an accessible way to think more deeply about the data we generate, interpret, and rely on each day. Their book, Speak Data: Artists, Scientists, Thinkers, and Dreamers on How We Live Our Lives in Numbers, brings together diverse perspectives on data from voices across multiple disciplines. While these contributors may not identify primarily as data specialists, each offers a unique insight into how data influences their respective fields. Through 17 conversations with figures such as James Clear, Seth Godin, Refik Anadol, Eric Topol, and Paola Antonelli, Lupi and Cox aim to broaden how we understand and engage with data, highlighting its role in expressing complex human experiences.
Because data is so deeply embedded in everyday life, it carries multiple meanings that must all be considered to fully grasp its potential in an increasingly complex and evolving world. Speak Data explores this richness by presenting data as something personal, layered, and shaped by human hands. Lupi’s own conceptual, data-driven illustrations encourage readers to see data not as rigid or purely numerical, but as something crafted, thoughtful, and reflective. Each interviewee also completes the phrase “Data is _____,” offering interpretations that range from “a form of memory” to “recorded feedback” or “irrefutable points of drama in a real story.” These varied definitions demonstrate that data is far from abstract or intimidating—it can evoke emotion, reveal patterns, and tell meaningful stories, making it a powerful and approachable tool for understanding the world and one another.
The book emerged from Lupi and Cox’s belief that data functions as a language. Much like words, it represents an abstraction of real-life people, places, events, and experiences. It allows us to identify patterns, filter observations, measure phenomena, map relationships, and communicate ideas. As a flexible and expressive medium, data adapts to the intentions of its user—shaped by context, perspective, and time—much like spoken or written language evolves with its speakers.
