UDIST300 Mapping
Prerequisite: Junior standing

This class will examine mapping systems and display technologies applied to diverse territories: art, architecture, graphic design, and literature. We will address mapping memories, bodies, social relations, and fictive spaces, as well as geographical sites and natural phenomena. We'll review various methods of data collection, including introspection, empirical observation, library research, surveys, and statistical analysis. We'll investigate systems for translating raw data into meaningful and valid - and invalid - representations through the use of codes and symbols, in two, three, and four dimensions. Though the emphasis is on the visual, we will look at attempts to map for the auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic senses. We will also examine the recurrence of the map as a metaphor for issues of representation through readings in cognitive psychology and critical theory. Student projects can draw from the panoply of maps presented throughout the class, including graphs and charts, computer and video visualizations, models and topographic representations, and narrative and non-narrative literary forms.

Interdisciplinary Studios extend a student's cross-school experience from Core Studio up into his or her upper division years. 3 units of Interdisciplinary Studio are required of all majors and must be completed in the junior or senior year.