Reflections on the Radical Data Workshop

Queering Quantified Self

Last year, I had the chance to join a workshop titled “Queering Quantified Self” workshop in affect lab studio by Radical Data. As a UX designer with a background in performance arts, I wasn’t sure how to position the ideas that resonated with me within the framework of today’s rapidly advancing technology. After all, technology is supposed to make life easier, right? And as designers, isn’t our job to ensure it becomes usable and accessible to people? Yet, as we strive to simplify the world through technology, we often find ourselves entangled in even more complex problems.

A Radical Perspective

The workshop offered a fresh perspective that turned the usual way of thinking on our interaction with technology and data. The idea was simple but radical: instead of letting technological systems decide what matters in our lives, we should be the ones recording and interpreting our own data in ways that make sense to us, not in ways predefined by algorithms or systems designed by others.

Does Technology Always Need to Make Life Easier?

Initially, I questioned the value of this approach. In a world where technology is designed to speed up and simplify our lives, what’s the point of a system that doesn’t do that? But maybe that’s the exact point. This workshop challenged the relentless pace of modern tech and suggested we slow down, taking time to tune into our bodies, our experiences, and our realities.

Slowing Down in a Fast-Paced World

The exercises we did in the workshop felt like a counterbalance to the wild energy of today’s tech culture. In the workshop, we also discussed fem-tech apps focused on monitoring bodily health. But the focus here wasn’t just on gathering data; it was about finding meaning in that data, shaped by your needs and your lived experiences rather than those programmed into a product.

The Social Impact of Slowing Down

There’s a strange contradiction in how technology has evolved. The more advanced it gets, the faster our lives move. And the faster everything becomes, the less time we have to pause, reflect, or connect. Technology promises solutions, yet it often creates new problems; locking us into cycles of endless upgrades, patches, and adaptations.

This workshop felt like pressing pause, a moment to reflect on an idea I’ve always valued in performance arts and body-focused practices, but one that often feels at odds with the fast pace of today’s world.

It reminded me that technology doesn’t always need to react or solve; it can also help us reflect.

Designing for Meaning

Ultimately, this wasn’t just a workshop about data. It was a way to think about our relationship with technology, our ownership of our own narratives, and how we might design systems that align with human rhythms instead of the relentless pace of modern innovation.

Maybe the goal isn’t to make things easier or faster. Maybe it’s about making them more meaningful.