Rick Bull
Musician
Performs live at the summit, conducting big data – generated by the audience – on a grand scale.
DataOps Summit 2021 · Session
Conductors of Chaos
Artists of all genres have been conducting the chaos of feelings, epic sagas, and triumphant or tragic histories into provocative works since the beginning of time. At DataOps Summit, musician Rick Bull will be doing it right before your eyes on a grand scale using Big Data – generated by you.
The session
Living in Data
Data artist Jer Thorp, a leading voice for the ethical use of big data, will take us into the fascinating world of ‘Living in Data’ and discuss how placing data in a human context can change the world for the better.
This is your chance to see the humanity behind the chaos of data and take part in a unique sound experiment.
On stage
Speakers
Jer Thorp
Data artist
A leading voice for the ethical use of big data, presenting ‘Living in Data’ and the case for placing data in a human context.
Where it sits
Agenda
Conductors of Chaos opened the second morning of the virtual 2021 summit, ahead of the day’s keynotes and breakout sessions.
Data has become the raw material of modern organizations, and the teams who shape pipelines, streams, and platforms have become the architects behind it. DataOps Summit gathers the practitioners who design, build, and operate those data architectures, offering a place to share patterns, practices, and lessons learned. The focus is not on tooling alone but on the culture, collaboration, and engineering discipline that lets an organization turn messy information into insights people can actually act on.
The summit's program spans keynotes, breakouts, hands-on labs, hackathons, and training classes, so attendees can move between big-picture perspectives and deeply technical sessions. Talks cover pipeline design, cloud data platforms, integration, and advanced techniques, with tracks tailored to different skill levels, from developers new to the field to seasoned data leaders. A wide range of speakers and community voices makes the conversation varied, and the expo hall adds room for live demonstrations and informal exchange.
Conference day typically runs long enough to absorb the energy of a full community gathering, with sessions, workshops, and a hackathon unfolding in parallel. Attendees describe the atmosphere as immersive and celebratory, a place where data professionals who are passionate about their craft can compare notes, swap stories, and hear how peers are transforming pipelines and platforms. It is also an opportunity to see how shared experiences enhance an organization's thinking rather than working in isolation.
Some of the most memorable moments take an unexpected shape, using data as an artistic medium to explore what a dataset can reveal when viewed from a human angle. Performers and data artists have staged live, large-scale creations, turning audience input into something you can watch being conducted in real time. Sessions like these underline a broader idea at the heart of the event: data is not just a resource to be managed, but a material that can inspire, surprise, and bring people together around shared insight.
| Session | Date | Time | Speakers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conductors of Chaos | September 29, 2021 | 08:00 AM – 08:30 AM | Rick Bull, Jer Thorp |
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