Who the heck are the Data Vandals?
Photo credit: Jamie & The Jam
photo credit: Mark Shaw
Our artwork transforms data into experiences that invite curiosity and create conversations.
We invite people to become active participants rather than passive observers.
We believe data is a universal language—by making it visual and accessible, we enable communities to engage in meaningful conversations and build deeper connections with one another.
By transforming abstract statistics into tangible experiences that invite curiosity and discovery, we turn public spaces into living conversations of collective understanding.
Data Vandals evolved as an experiment in 2021 to bring data visualization out of the digital world and onto the streets. We are driven by our conviction that meaningful change happens when art meets community.
- Email us! Datavandalsnyc@gmail.com
- We want to create murals!
- We want to collaborate with communities to establish micro-museums.
- We want to create a movement of data activists engaging in thoughtful conversations.
Bios
Jen Ray
https://cargocollective.com/JenRayArt
https://socogallery.com/jen-ray
Multidisciplinary artist Jen Ray (b. 1970, American) presents performances, paintings, and sound works that celebrate female confidence and self-determination. Drawing inspiration and symbolism from a wide range of socio-political and cultural references, from feminist science fiction and dystopian theory, to seventies glam rock, to multi-layered historical references and gendered storytelling, the artist challenges static or reverential perceptions of feminism and encourages on-going discussions about gender, intersectionality, and identity politics.
Jen Ray’s drawings are militantly detailed filigrees of judicious line and color; the artist’s hand enunciates sparring Amazonian women, who inhabit decaying, semi-surrealist and strangely beautiful wastelands. In addition to her works on paper, Ray orchestrates lavish and provocative performances in which the female protagonists of her drawings come to life. Ray currently lives in New York.
Jason Forrest:
https://www.jasonforrestftw.com/
Jason Forrest is a data visualization and design expert in New York City working at the intersection of business, culture, and data. He is the founder of the Jason Forrest Agency, focused on solving complex problems in business and industry by elevating the communication and understanding of data.
He is ½ of the data-art group Data Vandals, creating art installations that transform abstract statistics into tangible experiences that invite curiosity, discovery, and collective understanding.
Previously, he was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company and Director of the Data Visualization Lab, where he led many of the firm’s most high-profile projects, including the McKinsey Health Institute and the COVID Response Center.
He is the co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of Nightingale: The Journal of the Data Visualization Society, which fostered a global discourse on data visualization, supporting thousands of writers in expanding the narrative. In 2022, he established Nightingale Magazine, a print publication that ships to 57 countries and continues to explore how dataviz is discussed, practiced, and valued.