Patricio Dávila’s work includes creative practice, research, writing, and teaching. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Arts in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design, at York University. He is a core member of the Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) project at York University. Patricio is also founding member of Public Visualization Lab and Studio (PVLS), a networked lab and studio (YorkU, OCADU, TMU) that focuses on how visualization can operate as a critical design and media practice. A priority for the lab/studio is to understand the ways that the representation of data is political as well as analytical, designerly and creative. A basic premise that guides PVLS projects is that visualization is an assemblage that arranges people, things, and processes and as such demands a commitment to ethics, accountability, and meaningful participation.

Patricio’s research and practice focuses on the politics and aesthetics of participation in the visualization of spatial issues with a specific focus on urban experiences, mobile technologies, and large-scale interactive public installations. His research focuses on developing a theoretical framework for examining data visualization as assemblages of subjectivation and power. In his creative practice, through PVLS, he has created mobile applications, locative media projects, essay videos, new media installations, and participatory community projects including: Shadows!, Powers of Kin, Chthuluscene, Tent City Projections, The Line, and In The Air Tonight. His research and practice also include curatorial projects such as Multiplex Essay Film Festival and the Diagrams of Power exhibition, research events and a book published by Onomatopee Projects (NL). His recent book, co-authored with Peter Hall, Critical Visualization: Beyond Representation of Data is published by Bloomsbury Academic.