This course is all about finding and working with culture, digitally. In Cultural
Description
Analytics, you will apply your newly developed knowledge of Python to cultural data—for example the kinds of datasets that cultural institutions such as galleries, libraries, and museums make available to help us better understand their collections, data from other sources such as Spotify, Netflix or social media, and other humanities data such as historical statistics. For example, you might visualize changing patterns in the Museum of Modern Art's collections, explore how tastes are shaped through Netflix recommendations, or build an interactive map of transatlantic slave voyages from the seventeenth century.
In practical terms, you will build on your Python skills and dive deeper into how it can be used to work with cultural and humanities data. We will use the Python add-on pandas to develop core techniques for cleaning, filtering, and merging data in order to analyse and visualize it effectively. You will learn how to create and critique data visualisations including maps. For a final project, you will produce a professional looking report and 'data essay' with interactive elements. The course will be supported by an interactive course book.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Use a variety of Python techniques and packages to analyse and visualise tabular cultural & humanities data.
Describe and apply key design and visualisation concepts and principles to your own work.
Describe and critique, using relevant terminology from the discipline, the work of others, including your peers.
Design and implement a data analysis and visualisation project from beginning to end.
Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of working with humanities data.
Teaching method
Seminar
Assessment method
Participation: 10%
Examination: 40%
Assignments: 50%
Resit, review & feedback
A resit is possible for the Final Exam.
Reading list
A online course book will be provided. Some additional reading will be communicated at the start of the course.