Jer Thorp Bücher

A provocative exploration of our current and future relationship with data, this work highlights the journey of data artist Jer Thorp, who, in 2009, created algorithms to inscribe names on the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan. His project focused on “meaningful adjacencies”—placing family members and coworkers close together. Competing against a team of financial analysts who believed they had the optimal solution, Thorp presented a layout that achieved 99.99 percent of the desired adjacencies, while the analysts only managed about 93 percent. The analysts had analyzed the data but overlooked its representation; Thorp treated each name as a unique unit within a real system, honoring the individuals behind the data. This human-centered approach has characterized Thorp's work across various prestigious institutions and locations, from The New York Times and the Museum of Modern Art to the Library of Congress and beyond. In this narrative, Thorp demonstrates that viewing data through a human lens enhances problem-solving and fosters a healthier relationship with data, emphasizing well-being over the impersonal nature of the “big data” era. There is a path forward that prioritizes personal and community growth through data.

Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, this breathtaking debut novel tells the story of the most famous woman ever written out of literary history."I am the queen of two crowns, banished fifteen years, the famed and gilded woman, bad-luck baleful girl, mother of three small animals, now gone. I am fifty-five years old. I am Lear's wife. I am here." Word has come. Care-bent King Lear is dead, driven mad and betrayed. His three daughters too, broken in battle. But someone has survived: Lear's queen. Exiled to a nunnery years ago, written out of history, her name forgotten. Now she can tell her story. Though her grief and rage may threaten to crack the earth open, she knows she must seek answers. Why was she sent away in shame and disgrace? What has happened to Kent, her oldest friend and ally? And what will become of her now, in this place of women? To find peace she must reckon with her past and make a terrible choice - one upon which her destiny, and that of the entire abbey, rests. Giving unforgettable voice to a woman whose absence has been a tantalising mystery, Learwife is a breathtaking novel of loss, renewal and how history bleeds into the present.