Stefanie Posavec is a visual artist, designer and author known for transforming complex data into beautiful, human-centred works of art, often using hand-drawn, tactile, or participatory and interactive methods. Stefanie is resident in Nesta’s Arts team as part of the Discovery residency programme, bringing her artistic practice and perspectives to Nesta’s innovation missions.

Stefanie says: “At Nesta, I’ve recently completed the research and discovery phase of my artist residency, exploring how data underpins each of Nesta’s three missions. Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken with data experts across these missions to understand how they use data to track progress and where complexities or gaps emerge.”

“What’s fascinated me most is how each mission has its own distinct ‘data landscape’, with datasets that vary widely in their material qualities and complexity. I’ve been especially interested in how these differences might translate into aesthetic and emotional creative forms that complement Nesta’s more analytical visualisation work.”

“This has led me towards a creative focus inspired thematically by Nesta’s fairer start mission, examining the data behind the national headline indicators of good development used to track a child’s progress. I’m particularly drawn to the ‘data gaps’ that appear when the messy, complex realities of early childhood are translated into neat, comparable assessments. By exploring the spaces between what can be measured and what can’t through a creative lens, I hope to celebrate the ‘missing data’ of childhood experience: the rich, subjective elements often left out of official assessments.”

Stefanie says: “In my creative practice, I often work by hand and on an intimate, human scale in contrast to Nesta’s systems-level approach to creating change across its three missions. The residency offers a unique opportunity to collaborate with and learn from experts who operate at this systemic scale, and even at this early stage, I can already see how it’s reshaping my thinking. I’m excited to see how this shift in scale will shape my future creative output.”