Topics in Computation and Data: Actual, Factual: Data Literacy for Creatives

Contemporary interaction designers and artists often manipulate scientific, historical, commercial and social information. Literacy in design, art or engineering requires a complement of literacy in data. This class will make a powerful addition to your existing skill set of programming, visual design and electronics. Students will become conversant in the tools and methods for correctly collecting information and evaluating it to uncover truths about the world. In this class we learn about the “lies, damn lies and statistics” that we encounter daily. Basic training is provided in a variety of methods for interpretation and manipulation of data, yet no math beyond some simple arithmetic is required for completing this course. Exercises include using sensors to gather data, employing information to answer questions, building physical models and using some very accessible computer tools. Short projects teach how to uncover empirical data, what it looks like and what it means. Students will learn how to effectively and ethically extract information from the world, revealing the insightful stories that data have to tell.