Session 3 — Taking data apart

Day 1 · 60 minutes

At a glance

Reading: Loukissas, Chapter 1, Local Origins, pp. 13–26
Output: Notes on how data are made

Close reading

Chapter 1, Local Origins (Loukissas 2019, 13–26). Session 4 reads the same chapter from a different angle.

We read this text together in the session.

Reading summary

The chapter challenges common ideas about data. Data are plural and heterogeneous, not universal or context-free. Things become data through acts of interpretation, recording, and use. Data are also material: databases, categories, formats, and instruments shape what can be recorded and what can be done with it. Turning something into data always changes it and can remove parts of the original context.

In class

Students identify the decisions that sit behind a simple table.

Output

Notes on how data are made.

Session 4 — What does local mean? continues with the same chapter.

Close reading

Reading summary

In class

Output

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