Wikidata, the structured reference of Wikipedia, is used worldwide to train language software, such as translation apps and autocomplete functions in search engines. Wikidata data is accessible and free of charge, the information is up-to-date and exists in many different languages.

A tree, what?

When organic trees look for how they are represented in this database, cultural and power structures become visible. This work makes it clear, for example, that not all languages are present in the same way. Moreover, the search term tree leads to individual trees, such as the chestnut tree that grew next to Anne Frank’s house. Whereas even a child can easily point to a tree in physical life, the concept of a tree is a challenge for programmers in the digital world.
This is the result of the classification culture prevalent in the eighteenth century, and more specifically that of the Swedish physician and scientist Carl Linnaeus. His classification system lies at the basis of contemporary botanical nomenclature. A tree is non-existent in this nomenclature, in the belief that any plant can potentially grow into a tree, depending on the climate in which it is located.

Work & credits

When Organic Trees Meet the Data Tree gives a voice to trees, algorithms and people. Their visual stories give a critical view on the creation process of apps and other software we use on a daily basis. The data was retrieved from Wikidata in March 2020. The work was presented as part of the online exhibition DiVersions organized by Constant. It was also part of Les Colloques de Cerisy, ‘Angles morts du Numérique‘, in September 2020.

• Trees participating in this work: all species belonging to the following families: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tree_genera

• Humans participating in this work: tree clerk An Mertens (concept), designer-programmer Gijs de Heij (code & visualizations)

• Algorithms participating in this work: Python, Sparqle, Turtle, Jinja, Imagemagick

  Source code: https://gitlab.constantvzw.org/algolit/algoliterary_publishing/-/tree/master/wikidata_drawing

Thanks to Constant and Axel Claes.