Data Sins: Exploring Data Colonialism through Storytelling-Based Speculative Design Practices

Data Sins explores the concept of data colonialism as an emerging phenomenon in the early 21st century, fostering a critical understanding of its implications for human autonomy. Through speculative design, the project investigates how utopian ideals in data-driven technologies obscure neocolonial practices of data production and appropriation. Grounded in a theoretical framework, the storytelling mimics historical colonialism by exposing how the intertwined political, economic, and religious powers shape data-driven rituals and artifacts. This inquiry gains particular relevance in the context of Brazil's political conservatism over the past decade, which has consolidated a union between religious moralism, authoritarianism, and economic liberalism. The research underscores the non-neutrality of data, highlighting its role in shaping creative socio-technological design practices that safeguard not only the integrity of the self but the future of democracy itself.