Knotting data as a feminist approach to data materialization

Several researchers have been studying how working with materials such as yarn can shift how we think and theorize relations to the body and others, by bringing together feminist values at the intersection of data, technology, and hands-on making. Extending such prior work, our research, anchored in craft-based knowledge production, aims to contribute with explorations on knotting as a feminist approach to data materialization. We present a year-long process consisting of 4 workshops we conducted with participants, in which we used differ-ent forms of knotting to materialize data about bodies being part of our academic institution and the Covid-19 pandemic. Presenting the workshops and their outcomes, we discuss how knotting as an approach to materializing data can: 1. put a focus on missing data, 2. surface corporeal and affective vulnerabilities, 3. contribute to making new relations with other (non-human) bodies, and 4. trouble notions of time.