Disclose to tell. A data design framework for alternative narratives.

Modes of access and tools to manipulate data have brought marginalized actors to collaboratively create alternative narratives to those delivered by dominant power structures. Non-profit organizations and activist groups increasingly base their campaigns on data, using visualization as an agency tool for change. Data-driven alternative narratives counteract the hegemony of information, questioning the status quo and promoting the non-flattening of the data society, seeking to strengthen democracy. Data visualization is a decisive adversarial tool (DiSalvo, 2012) for turning data into alternative narratives. Translating data into visual representations for alternative narratives is an activist practice that requires a critical approach to data to make a political position evident and coherent.