Jordan Shaw: Data as Material

Seeing Signals—Jordan Shaw Turns Data into Art

Jordan Shaw, Pulses: Lisgar & Queen West (2025.04.17), 2025, Touchscreen, metal, oak, Raspberry Pi, custom software, Each: 7″ x 9″ x 3.5″

Jordan Shaw: Data as Material

September 12 – October 31, 2026
Opening Reception: September 12, 12–2pm
Artist Talk & Demo: September 12, 1pm
ARTSPLACE Gallery, Annapolis Royal, NS

What does your phone reveal about you without you ever saying a word? Toronto-based artist and creative technologist Jordan Shaw explores that question in Data as Material, which opens at ARTSPLACE Gallery in Annapolis Royal on September 12 and continues through October 31, 2026.

Shaw turns invisible wireless activity into physical artworks. Using custom scanners and software, he captures signals from nearby Bluetooth devices and other digital networks, recording their presence, strength, proximity and time. The resulting data becomes the basis for paintings, prints, electronic textiles, sculptures and interactive installations.

“The exhibition offers audiences a way to see the digital activity that normally passes unnoticed. A phone in a visitor’s pocket, a smartwatch on a wrist or a pair of wireless earbuds can become part of the artwork. In pieces such as Pulses and Constellation, the gallery itself becomes a source of data, with works responding to the devices and activity around them,” said Gallery Director Sophie Paskins.

Shaw’s You Had to Be There… series takes a snapshot of wireless activity at a particular place and time. Custom software records Bluetooth packets in real time, translating the resulting data into layered marks on canvas. Each painting is tied to a specific date, time and location, creating a visual record of people and devices that were present, even though they may never have known they had become part of the work.

The (in)visible series similarly transforms unseen transmissions into hand-embellished data prints. Together, these works raise questions about how much information is generated simply by moving through the world and what happens to that information once it has been collected.

There is also a distinctly Nova Scotian thread running through the exhibition. Shaw spent summers in the Margaree Valley on Cape Breton Island, where he learned rug hooking from his grandmother. His Connected Landscapes series combines ethernet cable with printed circuit boards, adapting a traditional textile process to contemporary digital materials. Landscape imagery drawn from photographs taken during trips to Nova Scotia connects this work to both place and family history.

Data as Material presents data not as something abstract or distant, but as a record of everyday life. The exhibition asks viewers to consider the digital systems operating around them, the traces they leave behind and the increasingly blurred boundary between physical and digital experience.

Jordan Shaw, Data as Material, Installation

About the Artist

Shaw’s interdisciplinary practice combines sculpture, electronics, generative code, data visualization and textile craft. His work has been exhibited internationally and commissioned for public art events, including Nuit Blanche, Lumière and igNIGHT. He holds a B.I.T. in Interactive Multimedia and Design from Carleton University and Algonquin College and an MFA in Digital Futures from OCAD University.

Also On View

Therese Cruz: Origins
September 12 – October 31, 2026
Opening Reception: September 12, 12–2pm

Therese Cruz is based in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where she is a town councillor, arts administrator and a business owner. Having the ocean at her doorstep provides her with endless energy and inspiration.

Her work is influenced by her travels, her exposure to multiculturalism, and her personal connections and relationships. She takes inspiration from modern art and design but also injects a traditional approach in the little details in her pieces. Her love of jewellery and metal started in her dad’s car repair shop in the Philippines, where she was intrigued by the manipulation of metal and the sparks of the welding torch. Therese fostered her creative and technical interests in the Jewellery Arts program at Toronto’s George Brown College where she earned an Advanced Diploma. While living in Toronto, Therese worked for Canadian designers Jennifer Shigetomi of Matsu Jewellery and Emmanuel Belliveau of Floro where her artistic gifts were encouraged.

My Story Photo Project 20
September 12 – October 31, 2026
Opening Reception: September 12, 12–2pm

20th Anniversary of My Story Photo Project. The MY STORY photo project (MSppa.org) teaches participants how to ‘see’ like a photographer. We use cell phones because just about everyone has one in their pocket and they are affordable. Then we give them some basic photographic and video tools; the rest is up to them. Students are given shooting assignments: people at work and at home, their best friends, a feeling, a movement…just about anything! Their images and short videos are critiqued by the group and then they edit them into an exhibition, no easy task!

MSppa works with NGOs, CBOs, and migrant schools. Since 2006, the project has trained over 798 students and 26 photo workshop leaders in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, Mexico, and Canada. 47 exhibitions have been mounted in Thailand, Canada, USA, Ireland, Malaysia, and Mexico.

Lorna Mulligan et al: A Place in Time
September 19–26, 2026

Participants from Lorna Mulligan’s workshop will share their work in this pop-up exhibition.

Karen Phillips Curran & Louise Miteouamigoukoue Spiritcougar: The Tarot Talks
October 3–31, 2026

In this exhibit, two Bear River artists, Louise Miteouamigoukoue Spiritcougar and Karen Phillips, transform tarot cards through different mediums, each from their own perspective.

The cards are meant to teach, reveal and help us navigate and understand our paths. Their teachings are universal yet individual, as is the human experience.

About ARTSPLACE

ARTSPLACE is a public Art Gallery that is operated by the Annapolis Region Community Arts Council, a registered charitable, community organization dedicated to encouraging and promoting the arts. Supported through the Province of Nova Scotia and the Canada Council for the Arts.

ARTSPLACE is located in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. We recognize and honour the contributions of L’nu’k, the Indigenous people of Mi’kma’ki, and we commit to making space within our programs for people to learn about the history of the Peace and Friendship Treaties and the relationship between nations, both past and present.

We also acknowledge that land acknowledgements alone are not enough. We must seek out and support Indigenous artists. We must listen to diverse voices.

ARTSPLACE Gallery
396 St. George Street, Box 534
Annapolis Royal, NS B0S 1A0
www.arcac.ca
admin@arcac.ca
(902) 532-7069

Facebook @ARTSPLACEGallery
Instagram @arcac.artsplace

Accessibility:
ARTSPLACE Gallery has one accessible parking space at the front of the building and a ramped entrance. The Main, Library, and Mym Galleries, as well as the washroom, are all wheelchair accessible on one level. The Chapel Gallery is wheelchair accessible via an external ramp and is located on a lower level than the main galleries. The upstairs programming space is accessible by stairs only.