… on boards and panels, I am privy to conversations about the data that is being tracked, how many tickets are sold, through which outlets, but I am also interested in what data is not being tracked, what data do we not quantify. As AI becomes a force in our lives we realize that the limitations are not simply in the software but in the data that we feed it.” – Kaneza Schaal

DATA ROOM is a series of intimate, public conversations conceived by New York-based theater, opera, and film artist Kaneza Schaal. Staged at The Performing Garage, the project explores how we exchange knowledge, preserve creative lineage, and build shared meaning in a time of fragmented attention and digital overexposure. “What do I do as an artist?” Schaal asks. “I make secure spaces for storing and sharing materials with select individuals: I make data rooms.” This first iteration marks the launch of a multi-year project focused on the architectures—physical, social, and conceptual—that shape how ideas circulate today. DATA ROOM operates as both metaphor and method: a site for critical exchange, cultural memory, and imaginative refuge. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Kaneza Schaal is a New York City-based artist working in theater, opera, and film. Her work has shown in divergent contexts from New York City galleries, to courtyards in Vietnam, to East African amphitheaters, to European opera houses, to USA public housing, to rural auditoriums in the UAE. By creating art that speaks many formal, cultural, historical, aesthetic, and experiential languages she seeks expansive audiences. In her commitment to artist-centered institutions, Schaal co-founded the Gihanga Institute for Contemporary Art in Kigali, Rwanda; The Collective Practice a resource sharing structure for theater makers; and served on the board of PS122/PSNY; and the leadership council for the artist employment and guaranteed income initiative Creatives Rebuild New York. She is currently a co-director of Under The Radar Festival in New York City. Schaal is the recipient of a Doris Duke Artist Award, LA Opera Stern Artist Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, SOROS Art Migration and Public Space Fellowship, Ford Foundation Art For Justice Bearing Witness Award, United States Artists Fellowship and Creative Capital Award.

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