Data and Human Space
NYU Abu Dhabi | F20 term | CDAD-UH 1033EQ
| Core: Data and Discovery | to view S21 syllabus click here
NYU Abu Dhabi | F20 term | CDAD-UH 1033EQ
| Core: Data and Discovery | to view S21 syllabus click here
Societies have traditionally used maps to represent, even construct, the spaces in which we live and the territories over which we assert control. But what becomes of the map in the (post-) digital age? Has our relationship to human space changed in our data-rich world? What places of the world are mapped more fully? Are we unknowingly mapmakers by virtue of walking around with smart devices on our person? How do maps reinforce biases of the past? Can they be used for social justice? This course explores the specific role that technology can play in our understanding of both historical and contemporary map making. Through regional and global examples of urban culture mapping, the course allows students to interact with, and interpret, data within familiar environments. In addition to seminar discussion of readings and audiovisual materials, the course has a lab component. The course assumes no prior computer skills, but a willingness to explore new technologies is essential for success.
In the remote F20 term, we will be working with mapping exercises using both free and proprietary platforms, extracting data from OpenStreetMaps, critically analyzing open data about places in the world you know well, crowdsourcing (and augmenting) the Cheap Eats map of Abu Dhabi from the Gazelle, learning to make storymaps and will be telling data stories about old travelers to the Arabian peninsula. We will use datasets about language in the Middle East, race in America, early 20th century Gulf History, literature and culture and you will learn to build datasets that we can archive at the end of the course.
Previous iterations of this syllabus can be found at wp.nyu.edu/dhs.
This syllabus is provided as an open educational resource with a CC BY-SA-NC 4.0 International license. If you reuse it, in part or in whole, please cite it.
NYU Abu Dhabi. (2020). CDAD UH-1024Q: Reading Like a Computer course syllabus. Abu Dhabi, UAE: David Joseph Wrisley.