Mobile City Chronicles

4 credits · Undergraduate

Information and data technologies are remaking human society. If left to corporate and state remodeling, de-democratization and polarization seem likely outcomes in this new world of algorithmic life. Are there alternatives? In this course, students learn to develop other possibilities that generate more civically engaged, transparent, and sovereign data streams. This is a lab-based course. Projects will address how data could operate in civic spaces to increase direct democratic agency in local lives. Lab work includes building apps that implement story concepts, game dynamics, and collaborative development strategies. No course prerequisites or software competences. Experience with digital art and/or JavaScript and Python desirable.