UCLA Asian American Studies



UCLA Urban Humanities InitiativeNew Summer Institute Launches its First Undergraduate OfferExplores Los Angeles Through the Lens of Technology and Social Justiceing: LA Tech City Summer InstituteHow are cars, film and the Internet contributing to social, economic and cultural issues in Los Angeles? An innovative UCLA summer program called HYPERLINK "" LA Tech City Summer Institute: Urban Innovation and Design explores the impact these technologies have on urban life in Los Angeles. The Developed by UCLA’s HYPERLINK "" Urban Humanities Initiative (UHI), is pleased to introduce the LA Tech City Summer Institute for Urban Innovation and Design. tThis new instituteprogram brings the pioneering pedagogies developed by the Urban Humanities Initiative to our undergraduate student population as it brings forth theories, methods and design perspective for tomorrow’s generation of urban thinkers, dwellers and practitioners. As Prof. Dana Cuff noted, “LA Tech City reflects our growing awareness about the importance of cities in daily life, and the significance of technology to our urban understanding.” The course offers a series of seminars, studios, field-based activities and workshops that explore how innovative spatial technologies can allow us to engage with issues of spatial justice in Los Angeles through research and design projects. This four-week intensive officially starts July 3 and features a new UCLA course titled, “Digital Humanities 30: Los Angeles Tech City: Digital Technologies & Spatial Justice.” The course, taught jointly by UCLA Professor’s Dr. Todd Presner and Dr. Dana Cuff, offers 5 quarter units of UCLA credit, as well as GE and Diversity credit for UCLA students. “LA Tech City reflects our growing awareness about the importance of cities in daily life, and the significance of technology to our urban understanding,” said Dr. Dana Cuff, professor of Architecture and director of cityLAB. In addition to the course, students will engage in a series of curated professional development activities such as seminars, studios, field-based activities and workshops. As Cuff explains, “This program teaches theory, technology and practice through innovative projects so that students are engaged in hands-on learning.,” said Cuff. This institute was designed for undergraduate students interested in pursuing careers in creative tech, architecture and urban design, data analysis, public service, as well as a wide range of graduate programs. Through the innovative combination of UCLA course work and professional development activities, students will uncover how innovative spatial technologies enable engagement with issues of spatial justice in Los Angeles through research and design projects.“By harnessing an array of digital technologies, we will investigate Los Angeles and imagine the 21st century metropolis in new ways, attuned to social justice issues,” said Presner, UHI principal investigator and founding director of UCLA’s Digital Humanities program. “The car, film and the Internet have created particular social, economic and cultural divisions that allow us to analyze processes of urban transformation through cutting-edge digital tools, from ‘thick mapping’ to ‘filmic sensing,” saidPresner underlined Presner.Thick mapping is a method of superimposing various forms of geocoded data, from archival documents to data harvested from social media. It offers the opportunity to visualize urban spaces in their full complexity. Other state-of-the-art methods include filmic sensing and spatial ethnography, where contemporary urban experiences can be powerfully captured and analyzed.By the end of this intensive four-week institute, students will behave able to designed a web-based platformportfolio and be able to work with image-editing software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Using this set of conceptual and technical tools, students will learn to present the field-based projects developed in LA Tech City in convincing ways, while constructing their own digital portfolio.This institute carries 5 quarter units of UC credit and GE credit (Foundations of Society and Culture – Social Analysis). Grades earned will be recorded on an official University of California transcript. Registration is currently open at HYPERLINK "" summer.ucla.edu/latechcity. Boilerplate: UHI was established in 2012 through a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to promote productive dialogues between the fields of architecture, urbanism and the humanities around questions that arise in dense urban environments. This ambitious project resulted in the creation of a cross-disciplinary graduate certificate in urban humanities at UCLA, and a series of collaborative teaching and research project centered on cities on the Pacific Rim. Over 60 students have already completed the graduate program, which integrates interpretative and historical approaches of the humanities with the material, projective practices of design to document, elucidate, and transform the cultural object we call the city. As Prof. Dana Cuff noted, “LA Tech City reflects our growing awareness about the importance of cities in daily life, and the significance of technology to our urban understanding.” The course offers a series of seminars, studios, field-based activities and workshops that explore how innovative spatial technologies can allow us to engage with issues of spatial justice in Los Angeles through research and design projects. The institute investigates the contributions of three particular technologies (the car, film, and the Internet) to the design and transformation of the global metropolis of Los Angeles. Students explore how these not-so-ancient technologies have created particular social, economic and cultural divisions as we analyze processes of urban transformation through cutting-edge digital tools, from ‘thick mapping’ to ‘filmic sensing.’ “Using an array of digital technologies,” Prof. Todd Presner explains, “students will explore Los Angeles and imagine the 21st century metropolis in new ways, attuned to urban, social, and economic issues.” LA Tech City teaches theory, technology and practice through projects so that students are engaged in hands-on learning, Cuff told me. ‘Thick mapping,’ a method of superimposing various forms of geocoded data, from archival document to data harvested from social media, offers the opportunity to visualize urban spaces in their full complexity. The institute teaches other state-of-the-art methods, including filmic sensing and spatial ethnography, where contemporary urban experiences can be powerfully captured and analyzed.As LA Tech City recognized the power of good design to communicate research findings and to implement urban projects, the institute includes a portfolio and data visualization workshop. Students will learn a set of conceptual and technical tools that allows them to present the field-based projects developed in LA Tech City in convincing ways, while constructing their very own online portfolio. By the end of this intensive 4-week institute, students will be able to design a web-based platform and work with key digital image-editing software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Their portfolio will include 3 projects that they will have created through the institute as well as plenty of space to integrate past and future urban projects. This course is spearheaded by Prof. Todd Presner, principal investigator with the Urban Humanities Initiative and founding director of UCLA’s Digital Humanities program. LA Tech City’s various sections will be co-taught by experts in their fields, including Prof. Dana Cuff, founding director of the Urban Humanities Initiative, and specialists in geographic information system, graphic design, urban analysis, video editing, filmmaking, and image editing. LA Tech City takes place at UCLA, from July 3 to July 28, 2017. The program carries 5 quarter units of UC credit and GE credit (Foundations of Society and Culture – Social Analysis). Grades earned will be recorded on an official University of California transcript. Registration is now open, until April 24, 2017.LA Tech City will be holding an information session lead by Prof. Todd Presner on Thursday, March 9 at 1PM, 1220 Perloff Hall. You can register for this info session via MyUCLA by following this HYPERLINK "" link. For more information about LA Tech City: HYPERLINK "" more information about the Urban Humanities Initiative: HYPERLINK "" ................
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