ABSTRACT
Situating data in the city means to engage with spatial aspects of information and communication technologies. This chapter proposes to approach data-driven phenomena through digital infrastructures and to understand their relation to space on their own terms: by closely reading documentation materials, technical specifications, and code. It outlines a possible mode of inquiry that avoids relegating data devices to mere mediators of the social, or resorting to other grand abstractions. An applied materialist topology can engage the problem head on by examining the articulations and translations of time-spaces directly within the various inscriptions of digital matter. When investigating the multitude of ways in which cities in the twenty-first-century enter into complex relations with data devices and digital infrastructures, it is therefore advisable to consciously deploy the spatio-temporal workings of ICT towards a technical understanding of the socio-political implications of data.
