Geoffrey C. Bowker explores how the concept of selfhood can be enriched by considering ourselves as existing both inside of our own bodies and minds and within extended data networks. Drawing examples from the quantified-self movement and big data analytics more generally, he argues that not only is data about us being captured—but that we are partially constituted by that data. He develops this analysis in terms of the new forms that “nature” is taking within the world of biodiversity data.

Geoffrey C. Bowker is Professor in the School of Information & Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He directs the Evoke Laboratory, which explores new forms of knowledge expression, and is a founding member of the Council for Big Data, Ethics & Society. Recent positions include Professor and Senior Scholar in Cyberscholarship at the University of Pittsburgh iSchool and Executive Director of the Center for Science, Technology & Society at Santa Clara University. He is the author of Memory Practices in the Sciences (2006) and, with Leigh Star, Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences (2000). He is currently working on big data policy and scientific cyber-infrastructure. He is also completing a book on social readings of data and databases.

Reception to follow.