Data Through Design 2026 Open Call
This year, we invite projects that explore ecologies—both natural and constructed. By ecology we mean more than the natural environment: we mean interconnected systems of information, cities, communities, and materials, where cycles of growth, decay, renewal, and transformation unfold.
We encourage artists to consider how data itself is ecological: how it accumulates, erodes, regenerates, or leaves traces. How might data be materialized, embodied, or inscribed by natural processes? How might art reveal the ways human systems and natural systems shape and respond to one another?
Proposals might engage with living systems, natural cycles, or urban ecosystems. They might examine materiality and craft, murmurations and flows, entropy and genesis, or the sublime scale of ecological change. We are interested in work that allows data to be felt, witnessed, or transformed—whether through physicalization, interaction, or by revealing the ways nature itself records and inscribes change.
Artists we’re looking at / who inspire us
We look to artists who expand how data and systems can be understood and experienced. Some, like Hilma af Klint and Agnes Denes, have sought to quantify or map phenomena we don’t usually consider measurable—bringing unseen patterns into view. Others, like Neri Oxman, harness systems found in nature—growth, aggregation, adaptation—to generate new forms and perspectives. We are also inspired by artists who uncover or reveal naturally occurring data visualizations, where the world itself inscribes its changes: Dietmar Offenhuber, for example, traces how infrastructure, weather, and human activity leave visible marks over time.
We also think of artists such as Charles Gaines, whose work reveals the structures underlying perception and meaning, turning systems into material for reflection and play.
These examples are not meant as boundaries, but as sparks: we welcome proposals that push beyond convention, experiment with process, and explore the entanglement of data, systems, and ecology in unexpected ways.
Artist references
How to submit a proposal:
Please use the Google form (link below) to submit project proposals to be part of a multiple media exhibition to be held in New York City in March of 2026. DxD presents work in a wide range of media and formats such as digital, analog, physical, performance, sound works, walks, installations, creative coding, participatory mapping, drawings, etc. We welcome proposals that expand beyond the gallery walls and will support projects that occur in public spaces and in unconventional formats. Please see some samples of past exhibitions on our website.
Artists are expected to reference or use at least one NYC Open Data dataset in their project. Other data, including data derived from novel and experimental collection systems, are welcome (in conjunction with the use of NYC Open Data data). We’re interested in participatory data collection; in radical and cognitive mapping; in data that is represented or experienced through time, sound, and other senses.
Stipend: DxD will provide a $900 stipend for project fabrication, as well as installation and promotional support to each project artist or artist team. Please note: applicants must be approved to work in the US in order to be paid a stipend.
Exhibition Details: Exhibition dates are tentatively set for March 21 - March 28 in New York City. Work must be installation-ready by March 14, 2026 and artists should plan to deliver work to the venue by March 18.
Data Through Design is committed to supporting a diverse range of voices and perspectives. We encourage submissions from a wide range of artists, civic technologists, data enthusiasts, city dwellers, and creative practitioners in all formats.
Proposal Submission instructions and form: https://datathroughdesign.com/call-for-proposals-2025
Proposal submission date: November 4, 2025
Learn more about Open Data Week
There are lots of ways to participate in NYC Open Data Week! If you have an idea for a project that doesn’t fit into a DxD art exhibition proposal, explore other Open Data Week participation options at open-data.nyc.