Surya Mattu is one of the first artists I met who made the word “tech” in art feel like an opportunity rather than a liability. His work in art, engineering, and journalism demystifies a wide range of complex systems: from the biases in predictive policing algorithms, to the invasiveness of Facebook ad targeting, to how your devices are tracking you in your home.

Mattu is the founder of the Digital Witness Lab at Princeton University and a senior data journalism engineer at Bloomberg News. We’ve collaborated on many projects over the years, and I’ve always admired his ability to find joy—even when things seem bleak. We recently had a conversation about creating work that critiques technology in today’s landscape and how to stay inspired in the process.