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Mapping Historical New York Research Associate Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

Come and join our amazing team to expand our mapping of Historical New York.

We have a Research Associate Position available starting as early as July.

Assistant Director Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

https://opportunities.columbia.edu/en-us/job/525035/assistant-director-center-for-spatial-research

Official Website launch of Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Announcing the official launch of Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas.

The interactive map visualizes Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s transformations during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Drawing on 1850, 1880, and 1910 census data, it shows how migration, residential, and occupational patterns shaped the city.

Mellon Associate Research Scholar Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) seeks applications for a full-time Associate Research Scholar as part of the Andrew Mellon Foundation funded initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities at the Center for Spatial Research. A Master’s degree in Architecture, Design Research, or a closely related field (e.g., Urban Planning, Computational Design, Geography, Landscape Architecture) is required. Candidates with training in the design disciplines whose research practices involve innovative digital, visual, and multidisciplinary approaches at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, and the humanities are invited to apply. This one-year appointment will begin on July 1, 2021 and is renewable contingent on satisfactory performance and available funding.

Conflict Urbanism Aleppo Project Featured on World Politics Review Conflict Urbanism Press

Conflict Urbanism Aleppo project has been featured in “‘An Entire Archive of Our Life.’ Saving the Record of Syria’s War”

Interactive Vaccine Allocation Map Launches as Update to Mapping the New Politics of Care Conflict Urbanism Press

An interactive map of each county in each state proposing how COVID-19 vaccinations could be distributed is now publicly available, providing an important tool for policymakers and the public alike to analyze the differences between multiple distribution strategies as well as issues surrounding equity and vulnerability of at-risk groups.

Call for Proposals: Support for Seminars on Topics in Spatial Inequality for 2021-2022 Academic Year Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Press

The Center for Spatial Research at Columbia University (CSR) is pleased to announce funding to support the development of new courses that focus on topics related to spatial inequality at Columbia University. Proposals for new courses to be offered during the 2021-2022 academic year are due February 23, 2021.

Mapping Project in Support of a Community Health Corps and a New Politics of Care Conflict Urbanism Press

Mapping the New Politics of Care is a visual journey through the inequities and vulnerabilities that define the American landscape, using different definitions to describe communities at risk, down to the county level. The project is also designed to show visitors how the areas that appear most at risk within each state shifts depending on how vulnerability is measured: from COVID-19 cases to unemployment rates, from COVID-19 deaths to formal metrics of health vulnerability such as Years of Potential Life Lost and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index.

Digital Mapping Across Disciplines: Anti-Eviction Mapping Project Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Join faculty, researchers, students and staff for a seminar with Erin McElroy, cofounder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and postdoctoral researcher at New York University’s interdisciplinary AI Now Institute. Erin will discuss the work of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and their approaches to public mapping pedagogy. This conversation is as part of a year-long series of workshops on discourses of place and space and the use of digital mapping and Geographic Information Systems in the classroom, Digital Mapping Across Disciplines.

Jia Zhang Contributes to "Who We Are" at the Museum of the City of New York Conflict Urbanism Exhibitions

Powers of Ten: Census Edition and Cross-sections Map for New York City are on view at the Museum of the City of New York. Both maps aim to change the interfaces designed for Census data by using physical scale and experiences as orienting concepts for visualizing the contents of the Census. These two digital maps designed by Mellon Associate Research Scholar, Jia Zhang, are being exhibited as part of "Who We Are," from November 22, 2019-September 20, 2020.

Digital Mapping Across Disciplines: Teaching with Emerging Methods Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Join faculty, researchers, and staff for an introductory conversation about how faculty can bring spatial methods into humanities and social science courses. The first in a year-long series of workshops on discourses of place and space and the use of digital mapping and Geographic Information Systems in the classroom.

Homophily: The Urban History of an Algorithm at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial Conflict Urbanism Exhibitions

Homophily: The Urban History of an Algorithm will be on view at the Chicago Architecture Biennial from September 19, 2019 - January 5, 2020. An exhibit focusing on the urban origins of the term homophily, its formalization and proliferation through the algorithmic logics of online networks, and the risks we run when it becomes not just a descriptive model but a prescriptive rule for social life.

Data Publics and Public Data Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

This event will feature new work by Mellon Associate Research Scholars Brian House & Jia Zhang completed as part of their fellowships with the Center for Spatial Research in the 2018-2019 academic year. The discussion of both projects will center around the politics of personal data and its relationship to the development of urban policy and the built environment. Their projects point to forms of artistic, academic, and activist practices that might intervene or offer new possibilities in this fraught landscape

Apply by April 1 for Summer 2019 Graduate Research Assistantships Conflict Urbanism Jobs

The Columbia Center for Spatial Research is seeking applications for one or more Graduate Research Assistants for the summer of 2019. The Graduate Research Assistants will work on ongoing CSR-led research projects on conflict urbanism, and spatial inequality.

Pattern Discrimination, Book Launch and Discussion Session with Clemens Apprich Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Pattern Discrimination, Book Launch and Discussion Session with Clemens Apprich. March 15, 2019. How do “human” prejudices reemerge in algorithmic cultures allegedly devised to be blind to them? To answer this question, this book investigates a fundamental axiom in computer science: pattern discrimination. Join Dennis Yi Tenen and Laura Kurgan for an informal discussion session centered around the recent release of *Pattern Discrimination*(Minnesota UP) by Clemens Apprich, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Florian Cramer, and Hito Steyerl.

Call for Proposals: Support for Seminars on Topics in Spatial Inequality Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Press

The Center for Spatial Research at Columbia University (CSR) is pleased to announce funding to support the development of a new Spring 2020 course with a focus on topics related to spatial inequality at Columbia University. Proposals for new courses are due April 5, 2019. Through support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation selected faculty will receive $15,000 in summer salary towards course development. All full-time Columbia University faculty, at any rank, are eligible to apply.

Apply for Spring 2019 Student Positions Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is seeking student assistants for the Spring 2019 semester. We are seeking candidates to assist with several ongoing projects. Student assistants will work closely with CSR staff in a collaborative research environment. Specific roles and responsibilities vary by project and are outlined in this post.

Apply for Mapping for the Urban Humanities: A Summer Institute Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

A call for applications. Mapping for the Urban Humanities is a six day skills-building workshop in critical cartography, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It is designed to expand the disciplinary locations within which spatial knowledge in the urban humanities is produced and interpreted. Workshop participants will learn key skills in mapping, data collection, and data visualization that they can incorporate into their research and teaching. Space is limited. Interested faculty and doctoral candidates are encouraged to apply by January 31, 2019.

Palaces for the People Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Tuesday, November 27, 5:30pm. Book launch event with Eric Kleinenberg, Professor of Sociology, New York University. We are living in a time of deep divisions. Americans are sorting themselves along racial, religious, and cultural lines, leading to a level of polarization that the country hasn’t seen since the Civil War. Pundits and politicians are calling for us to come together, to find common purpose. But how, exactly, can this be done? In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg suggests a way forward. He believes that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, bookstores, churches, synagogues, and parks where crucial, sometimes life-saving connections, are formed.

Unnatural Disaster: Infrastructure in Puerto Rico before, during, and after Hurricane Maria Conflict Urbanism Events

Speakers on Unnatural Disaster: Infrastructure in Puerto Rico before, during, and after Hurricane Maria is co-orgnaized by Columbia GSAPP Urban Planning, Urban Design, and Historic Preservation Programs, the Center for Spatial Research, and the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.

Spaces of Exception Conflict Urbanism Events

Spaces of Exception, conference presented by the Geographies of Injustice working group of the Center for the Study of Social Difference.

Fall 2018 Information Session Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Come help us celebrate the start of our fourth year at the Center for Spatial Research!
Meet core researchers and students.
Learn about a new project and collaboration focused on mapping historical New York City.

In Plain Sight at the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture Conflict Urbanism Exhibitions

In Plain Sight presents anomalies in population distribution seen in nighttime satellite imagery of Earth and census grid counts produced by governments worldwide — revealing places with bright lights and no people and places with people and no lights—thus, challenging our assumptions about geographies of belonging and exclusion.

Urban Floods: Interdisciplinary Perspectives - Conference Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Urban Floods: Interdisciplinary Perspectives is a unique conference that seeks to bridge the gap between physical scientists – who draw on physical observations, quantitative data analysis, computer simulation, and visualization – and social scientists and humanists who focus on participant observation, case studies, and other interpretive methods. April 12-13, 2018.

The Art of Storytelling - Conference Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

The Center is pleased to co-sponsor The Art of Storytelling, a half-day conference on data visualization convened by the Columbia University Libraries. “We are almost two decades into the 21st Century and living in a dense forest of information. Making our way through means filtering and processing vast quantities of tangled and interconnected data, and in order to do this successfully, we must be able to see the information in meaningful ways, to be understood and shared with others. Ultimately, we must do what we've done for millennia -- we must tell stories.”

Apply for Summer 2018 Student Positions Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is seeking Columbia student candidates for both full-time and part-time positions during Summer 2018. Students will be responsible for data analysis, visualization, map design, and research on projects dealing with our current research focus: conflict urbanism. Students will work extensively with spatial data including mining and analyzing data, processing and collecting data, and/or visualizing data in compelling and innovative ways.

Ways of Knowing Cities - Conference Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Ways of Knowing Cities is a one-day conference which brings together leading scholars and practitioners from across multiple disciplines to consider the role that technologies have played in changing how urban spaces and social life are structured and understood – both historically and in the present moment.

Call for Applications: Research Scholar for Historical GIS and Visualization Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is pleased to announce a call for applications for a full-time Associate Research Scholar position for the 2018-2019 academic year. The position, within the Center for Spatial Research (CSR) will focus on critical work with Geographic Information Systems and design for a new grant-funded project mapping historical New York.

Mapping Historical New York Receives $1 Million Grant Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Press

The Center for Spatial Research is pleased to announce a new $1 million grant received from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to create web-based, interactive maps of Manhattan and Brooklyn during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The three-year project is a collaboration of Columbia’s History Department and the Columbia Center for Spatial Research in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).

Apply for Summer 2018 Course for Faculty: Mapping for the Urban Humanities Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

A call for applications. The Center for Spatial Research and the Dean of Humanities invite interested Columbia University faculty and advanced graduate students to participate in Mapping for the Urban Humanities: A Summer Institute. During the two-week Mellon-funded institute participants will learn key skills in mapping, data visualization, and data collection that they can incorporate into their research and teaching. Space is limited. Interested faculty and PhD candidates are encouraged to apply by Friday, January 26, 2018.

Call for Applications: Mellon Associate Research Scholars Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is pleased to announce a call for applications for Associate Research Scholars for the 2018-2019 academic year as part of the Andrew W Mellon Foundation funded initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities. We invite applications from candidates whose intellectual interests are situated within the broad urban humanities, who have strong digital, visual, and multidisciplinary research practices, and are enthusiastic about collaborative working environments.

The Location of Justice Map Published with Urban Omnibus Conflict Urbanism Press

The Center for Spatial Research, with Urban Omnibus, has just published an interactive map that locates the diverse sites and institutions that comprise the New York City criminal justice system. The map is part of Urban Omnibus’s new series, The Location of Justice, which examines “the pervasive and often overlooked infrastructure of criminal justice in New York and the spaces that could serve a more just city.”

#CLOSErikers Studio Project "After Arrest" Published by Urban Omnibus Conflict Urbanism Press

Students from Laura Kurgan’s fall 2016 #CLOSErikers Advanced Architecture studio, Clara Dykstra and Stella Ioannidou published their research “After Arrest” as part of Urban Omnibus’s new series, The Location of Justice, which examines “the pervasive and often overlooked infrastructure of criminal justice in New York and the spaces that could serve a more just city.”

Launch of Points Unknown Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Points Unknown, a new collaboration between the Center for Spatial Research, Brown Institute and Faculty from the Journalism School, launched a five-week course module this week for students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Map-a-thon for Puerto Rico featured in New York Times Conflict Urbanism Press

CSR researchers and students participate in map-a-thon to assist with the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico featured by The New York Times: "A Mapathon to Pinpoint Areas Hardest Hit in Puerto Rico."

Map-a-thon for Puerto Rico featured by PBS NewsHour Conflict Urbanism Press

CSR researchers and students and steering committee members participate in map-a-thon to assist with the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico featured by PBS NewsHour: "Volunteers are helping Puerto Rico from home, with a map anyone can edit"

Adam Greenfield: Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Adam Greenfield discusses his new book, Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life, in conversation with Laura Kurgan. September 15, 2017, 1:00pm Ware Lounge, Avery Hall. Everywhere we turn, our everyday experience of the world is being transfigured by the advent of startling new technologies. But at what cost? In this urgent and revelatory excavation of the Information Age, leading technology thinker Adam Greenfield forces us to rethink our relationship with the networked objects, services and spaces that define our lives, as well as the Silicon Valley consensus that is determining the shape of our future.

Apply for Fall 2017 Student Positions Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is seeking student assistants for the Fall 2017 semester. Students will be responsible for data analysis, visualization, map design, and will support research on projects dealing with our current research focus: conflict urbanism. Students will work extensively with spatial data including mining and analyzing data, processing and collecting data, and/or visualizing data in compelling and innovative ways.

Fall 2017 GIS Workshops Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

The Center for Spatial Research will be offering a workshop series this fall designed to give a basic introduction to core concepts and methods for work with geographic information systems in the urban humanities. The hands-on workshop series aims to contribute to existing campus-wide GIS resources, and is thus tailored to students doing coursework and research in the urban humanities with no prior GIS experience. It is open to students from all schools at Columbia University.

ProPublica Article Features Million Dollar Blocks Million Dollar Blocks Press

The Million Dollar Blocks project was featured in a recent article about countering bias in data driven journalism published by ProPublica. Author, Lena Groeger, describes the myriad ways that journalistic projects are (often unwittingly) biased from their outset as a result of design decisions made by their authors. She uses the Million Dollar Blocks project as an example of one way to counter such biases through choosing the right data sources and framing questions.

The Brain Index Opens in the New Jerome L. Greene Science Center Advanced Data Visualization Exhibitions

The Brain Index, an interactive digital art installation, has opened in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia’s Manhattanville campus.

Apply for Summer 2017 Student Positions Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is seeking student candidates for both full-time and part-time positions during Summer 2017. Students will be responsible for data analysis, visualization, map design, and research on projects dealing with our current research focus: conflict urbanism. Students will work extensively with spatial data including mining and analyzing data, processing and collecting data, and/or visualizing data in compelling and innovative ways.

Just Published: Access to Taxicabs for Unbanked Households Advanced Data Visualization Press

Our article Access to Taxicabs for Unbanked Households: An Exploratory Analysis in New York City has been published in the Journal of Public Transportation. In this paper, we used multiple datasets to explore taxicab fare payments by neighborhood and examine how paid taxicab fares are associated with use of conventional banking services.

Spring 2017 Lecture Series: Conflict Urbanism: Language Justice Conflict Urbanism Events

Please join us this spring for “Conflict Urbanism: Language Justice.” This public lecture series aims to explore the role of language in structuring cities, bringing together speakers to address the ways that urban spaces and their digital traces are physically shaped by linguistic diversity, and to examine the results of languages coming into contact and conflict.

Mapping Workshops During NYCDH Week Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Events

Michelle McSweeney and Dare Brawley will offer two introductory GIS workshops as part of this year’s New York City Digital Humanities Week. NYCDH Week offers students, faculty, librarians, and researchers the opportunity to take advantage of workshops in the digital humanities offered at universities across the city. All workshops are free and open to the public.

Laura Kurgan Interviewed by Noah Chasin in Bomb Magazine Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Press

Laura Kurgan, Director Center for Spatial Research, was interviewed by Noah Chasin for the Winter 2017 issue of Bomb Magazine. The interview covers her work at the Center for Spatial Research and its antecedents in the work of the Spatial Information Design Lab.

Apply for Summer 2017 Course for Faculty: Mapping for the Urban Humanities Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Press

A call for applications. The Center for Spatial Research and the Dean of Humanities invite interested Columbia University faculty to participate in Mapping for the Urban Humanities: A Summer Institute. During the two-week Mellon-funded institute faculty will learn key skills in mapping, data visualization, and data collection that they can incorporate into their research and teaching. Space is limited. Interested faculty are encouraged to apply by January 27, 2017.

Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo on view at 2016 Istanbul Design Biennale, Are We Human? Conflict Urbanism Exhibitions

Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo is on view at the 2016 Istanbul Design Biennale from October 22, 2016 to November 20, 2016. The Biennale is titled “Are We Human?” and presents projects that stretch “from the last 2 seconds to the last 200,000 years.” Our exhibit is on view in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum and presents two zooms from high-resolution satellite images of Aleppo at the scale of 1:1000 along with the Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo interactive map and case studies.

Laura Kurgan Speaks at SUPERHUMANITY TALKS at the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennale Conflict Urbanism Events

On October 20, 2016 Laura Kurgan spoke about the Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo project as part of SUPERHUMANITY TALKS, a panel event at the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial pre

Conflict Urbanism: Colombia Recognized at Habitat III Conference in Quito Conflict Urbanism Press

Conflict Urbanism: Colombia was named a winning entry of the CityVis Competition at the Habitat III conference in Quito. The competition was organized by University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, Germany and the Future Earth Media Lab. We are thrilled to have been selected as a winner!

Symposium on Conflict Urbanism Projects Conflict Urbanism Events

To mark its inaugural year, The Center for Spatial Research will present its work on "conflict urbanism" in Aleppo, and Colombia. The event will engage participants in a discussion about the role of conflict in structuring urban space and the politics of representation in zones of discordance, disruption and violence as it contributes to the making and remaking of cities.

Science Surveyor Demo Launched at the Brown Media Innovation Showcase at Stanford University Events

The Science Surveyor team built a tool for science journalists that makes it easier for them to put new studies into context. This tool captures and visualizes the corpus of scientific literature to put new scientific findings into a publication timeline, showing journalists where a study lies in relation to scientific consensus, who funded it and sources a reporter might want to call to get more information.

CSR Researcher Juan Francisco Saldarriaga to Speak at Bloomberg – Data for Good Exchange Advanced Data Visualization Events

Juan Francisco Saldarriaga will be presenting his recent paper ‘Access to Taxicabs for Unbanked Households’ during the Data for Good Exchange yearly conference at Bloomberg. The conference will take place on September 25th, 2016.

Conflict Urbanism: Colombia at the Oslo Architecture Triennale Conflict Urbanism Exhibitions

Our Conflict Urbanism: Colombia will be on view at the Oslo Architecture Triennale, After Belonging from September 8 to November 27, 2016.

Center For Spatial Research Awarded Collaboratory Fellows Grant Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Press

The Center for Spatial Research is pleased to announce our selection with the Brown Institute as inaugural recipients of Columbia University’s Collaboratory Fellows Grant for Points Unknown: New frameworks for investigation and creative expression through mapping.

Laura Kurgan's "You are Here" Featured in The Atlantic Press

Laura Kurgan's 1994 installation at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, "You Are Here: Information Drift," was featured in The Atlantic in June 2016. Geoff Manaugh revisited this project in The Atlantic in light of new locative technologies.

Hiring Summer Research Assistants for the Synapse Advanced Data Visualization Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is seeking Graduate Research Assistants for Summer 2016 for both full-time and part-time positions to work on various aspects of the Synapse project, a groundbreaking science communication initiative that takes its physical form as a large-scale, permanent installation located on the ground floor of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on the new Manhattanville campus of Columbia University.

The Art of Data Visualization: Activity Mapping Lecture Advanced Data Visualization Events
Juan Francisco Saldarriaga will be presenting two recent center projects in his talk ‘Activity Mapping’ during the Art of Data Visualization conference to be held at Columbia University on April 6th. The talk will take place at the Davis Auditorium (room 412 Schapiro CEPSR) from 10:50 AM to 11:30 AM.
Open Positions for Summer 2016 Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Jobs

The Center for Spatial Research is seeking Graduate Research Assistants for summer 2016 for both full-time and part-time positions. Students will be responsible for research, data analysis, visualization, and exhibition design on projects dealing with current research focus: conflict urbanism. Students will work with spatial data including mining and analyzing data, processing and collecting data, and/or visualizing data in compelling and innovative ways.

Columbia Data Science Society Lecture - Next Level Data Visualization Advanced Data Visualization Events

Juan Francisco Saldarriaga will be presenting multiple center projects emphasizing process and code for the Data Science Society at Columbia University. He will describe in detail how to gather data from public APIs and how to use different visualization tools to produce compelling graphics.

The Art of Data Visualization: Activity Mapping Workshop Advanced Data Visualization Events

Juan Francisco Saldarriaga will be leading a workshop on how to download API data using Python in the context of the Art of Data Visualization conference to be held at Columbia University on April 7th. The workshop will take place at the Digital Social Science Center (215 Lehman Library) from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM.

"The Human Face of Big Data" features Million Dollar Blocks Million Dollar Blocks Press

Laura Kurgan was interviewed about the Million Dollar Blocks project for the PBS documentary "The Human Face of Big Data." The documentary aired nationally on February 24, 2016 and featured Kurgan speaking about our unique approach to mapping and data visualization and what these methods revealed about geographies of incarceration in the United States.

Spring 2016 Lecture Series: Disrupting Unity and Discerning Ruptures: Focus Aleppo Conflict Urbanism Events

In the Spring 2016 the Center for Spatial Research is cosponsoring a lecture series with the Art History Department and the Middle East Institute. The series is running in conjunction with the CSR seminar Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo and aims to give historical, and art historical, context to the contemporary conflict in Syria and in particular in Aleppo.

For Families of the Incarcerated, Conviction Comes With a Cost Million Dollar Blocks Press

Al Jazeera's Ranjani Chakrabortty recently wrote an article about the impacts of incarceration on families and communities that drew on our Million Dollar Blocks project: "Each year, the U.S. spends $80 billion to incarcerate more than 2.4 million people. But when it comes to communities, the costs are even more staggering. A disproportionate number of inmates come from just a handful of neighborhoods in the country’s biggest cities. Brownsville [Brooklyn] has one of the highest concentrations of “million-dollar blocks” — places where the state is paying more than $1 million a year to incarcerate the residents of a single census block — in the country."

Launch Preview of Conflict Urbanism Aleppo on November 17th, 2015 Conflict Urbanism Events

On November 17th, 2015 the Center for Spatial Research, in collaboration with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, hosted a launch preview of Conflict Urbanism: Aleppo.

EXIT on view at Palais Tokyo from November 25, 2015 – January 10, 2016 Advanced Data Visualization Exhibitions

EXIT, a collaborative project produced with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Mark Hansen, Ben Rubin, Robert Gerard Pietrusko and Stewart Smith, has been fully updated and is on view at the Palais Tokyo in Paris from November 25, 2015 – January 10, 2016. The project was initially completed in 2008 but has been fully updated to coincide with Cop21, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

Columbia University Receives Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant to Establish Center for Spatial Research Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Press

Columbia University published a press release about the founding of the new Center for Spatial Research “Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are pleased to announce the creation of an interdisciplinary Center for Spatial Research. Directed by GSAPP Associate Professor Laura Kurgan, the Center will serve as a hub for urban research that links the humanities, architecture, and data science and will also sponsor a series of curricular initiatives built around new technologies of mapping, data visualization and data collection.”

"How Mass Incarceration Creates ‘Million Dollar Blocks’ in Poor Neighborhoods" - Washington Post Million Dollar Blocks Press

Emily Badger of the Washington Post reported the Million Dollar Blocks project "On several dark-red blocks [mapped here in Chicago], the missing residents are so many — or their sentences so long — that taxpayers have effectively committed more than a million dollars to incarcerate people who once lived there. This is the perverse form that public investment takes in many poor, minority neighborhoods: "million dollar blocks," to use a bleak term first coined in New York by Laura Kurgan at Columbia University and Eric Cadora of the Justice Mapping Center. Our penchant for incarcerating people has grown so strong that, in many cities, taxpayers frequently spend more than a million dollars locking away residents of a single city block."

Chicago's Million Dollar Blocks Million Dollar Blocks Press

Dr. Daniel Cooper of Adler University and Dr. Ryan Lugalia-Hollon, a writer and strategist, drew on our work on Million Dollar Blocks to map the incarceration landscape in Chicago. They used data collected by the Chicago Justice Project and built on research methods developed by the Spatial Information Design Lab.

Columbia University Library's Collection Visualized Advanced Data Visualization Press

Thanks to Andy Kirk for the nice write up on SIDL's collaboration with Alex Gil, Digital Scholarship Coordinator, Humanities and History Division, Columbia University Libraries.

NYC Media Lab Annual Summit Advanced Data Visualization Events

Juan Francisco Saldarriaga will be showcasing his project CitiBike Rebalancing Study at the NYC Media Lab Annual Summit, to be held on September 19th at the New School in New York City.

"Maps Reveal Widespread Imbalances in Citi Bike Stations" - Curbed Advanced Data Visualization Press

Curbed contributor Rowley Amato writes about our CitiBike Rebalancing Study: "It's been a rough couple of months for Citi Bike, what with the revelation that the program requires "tens of millions" to stay afloat, or news that annual membership rates could skyrocket from $95 to $150/year. Still, that's not stopping Columbia University fromattempting to perfect the imperfect system."

"The Science (and Maps) Behind Finding Available Citi Bikes and Docks" - Streetsblog Advanced Data Visualization Press

Streetsblog contributor Stephen Miller wrote about our CitiBike Rebalancing study: "Coming across an empty bike-share station when you need a bike — or a full one, when you need a dock — is a disappointing experience, to say the least. While Citi Bike’s rebalancing efforts try to keep up by shuttling bikes around town, the company is working against a tide that shifts demand unevenly across its service area."

"The ultimate riddle of supply and demand: bikeshare" - The Washington Post Advanced Data Visualization Press

Emily Badger of the Washington Post wrote about our CitiBike Rebalancing Study: "As a form of public transportation, bikeshare systems have one major catch: The bikes seldom circulate themselves in quite the way planners would like. If users traveled around town in all directions, at all times of day, in relatively equal numbers, docks would empty and refill naturally. None would ever be totally empty. None would ever be completely full."

Urban Design Event Series - Activity Mapping Advanced Data Visualization Events

As part of the Urban Design Event Series (5 Borough Studio, Summer 2014), Juan Francisco Saldarriaga presented the lecture Activity Mapping, at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University.

Visualising Data - Best of the visualisation web… June 2014 Advanced Data Visualization Press

Citi Bike Rebalancing Study featured on Visualising Data's "Best of the Visualization Web...June 2014" list. 

Visit the link below to find out more: https://visualisingdata.com/2014/08/best-of-the-visualisation-web-june-2014/

By Plotting Journeys, Providing a Glimpse at Citi Bike Ridership Advanced Data Visualization Press

The New York Times, City Room contributor Matt Flegenheimer writes about Juan Francisco Saldarriaga's research on CitiBike trips: "Since its introduction last May, the Citi Bike program has attracted 100,000 annual members but far fewer daily subscribers than expected, a combination that has contributed to the system’s precarious finances as operators look to expand. The math is simple: Regular riders strain the system through repeated use, leading to higher costs. A new data visualization project demonstrates this phenomenon, and makes clear the degree to which the bike share system has become interwoven into the city’s transit network."

City as Resource Lecture Series - The Uncertainties of Data Events

On February 27th, Juan Francisco Saldarriaga gave the lecture The Uncertainties of Data at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.

Turning Cryptic Data Into Beautiful Digital Mosaics Advanced Data Visualization Press

Advanced Data Visualization Project written up by Johnny Magdaleno on The Creators Project "Since technology is responsible for growth in the world’s collective knowledge, it also shares the responsibility of categorizing that knowledge into easily digestible bites. Because what’s the use of this glut if it can’t easily be understood? And in order for data to have the largest possible impact, doesn’t it make sense for it to be understandable by researchers and blog-readers alike? This conflict is one of the main issues breathing life into the Advanced Data Visualization Project (ADVP), a data analyzation project now in its second year at Columbia University. Birthed from a collaboration between international newswire Thomson Reuters and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), the ADVP is looking to make intricate systems--like neurons, international port logistics and library catalogues--both easily readable and stunningly beautiful."

Review of "Close Up at a Distance" Press

Craig M. Dalton reviews "Close Up at a Distance" in Geographical Review, Volume 103, Issue 4. He opens with: "Kurgan's Close up at a Distance is an ingenious and exciting push at the margins of what is possible to see and understand using satellite imagery, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The book is a review of and reflection on her provocative artistic and design projects using geotechnologies since the early 1990s."

Million Dollar Blocks in Design and Violence Exhibition at MoMA Million Dollar Blocks Exhibitions

Million Dollar Blocks on view in MoMA's Design and Violence exhibition. Steven Pinker writes about the project: "Information graphics have been given a bad name by USA Today. Many people think of them as ways of tarting up the trend of the day into a bit of eye candy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our ability to understand cause and effect in the world depends on grasping complicated relationships among variables—how people, money, actions, power, things, and qualities are distributed in space, how they vary in time, and how they affect one another."

"Close Up at a Distance" Review in Society & Space Advanced Data Visualization Press

Columbia Peoples reviews Laura Kurgan's Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology and Politics in Society and Space "Laura Kurgan’s Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology and Politics is an insightful and innovative book that defies straightforward classification, ‘poised’ as it is “at the intersection of art, architecture, activism and geography”. Its subject matter—satellite images, satellite mapping and remote-sensing images—is by now an established concern of critical geographical scholarship in particular"

Review of "Close up at a Distance." Press

UrbanTick reviews "Close up at a Distance": "What do we see, when we see the world? In today's world transcended by digital technology and flooded with representations, models and mashups the question of 'what are we looking at?' becomes more important. The many layers of data and visualisations in many cases start clouding the subject or in some cases appears completely detached from it and develop a dynamic of their own."

"How a Map is Like an Op Ed" Advanced Data Visualization Press

The Atlantic City Lab reviews Laura Kurgan's new book Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology, and Politics. "Thanks to the open data movement and Google Map Maker, anyone with a computer can create a map. These maps tell a story, but it's a subjective one. And while that can be a powerful tool, it can also skew perspectives and cloud a debate."

"Ways of Seeing" Review of "Close Up at a Distance" Advanced Data Visualization Press

Critical geographer Trevor Paglen reviews Laura Kurgan's new book "Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology, and Politics" in Bookforum.

Multiple Dimensions Advanced Data Visualization Events

Laura Kurgan and Jen Lowe gave a talk titled "Multiple Dimensions" at Eyeo 2013 where they discussed interdisciplinary projects in progress.

From Waiting Rooms to Resource Hubs: Designing Change at the Department of Probation Million Dollar Blocks Press

"Local governments have more than one way of enforcing law and order and providing for public safety. Incarcerating individuals convicted of crimes is of course the most familiar form of criminal justice. But alternatives do exist.

"Columbia's Spatial Information Design Lab Helps Map the Future" - Smart Planet Million Dollar Blocks Press

Smart Planet's Reena Jana write about Here Now: Social Media And The Psychological City: ""Big Data" and "social media" are today's biggest buzzwords. But beyond their trendiness as topics, Big Data and social media also allow everyday people to share their voices and stories, to participate in ways to possibly improve their lives. Someone, however, needs to make sense of all of the information floating around--by organizing neatly and efficiently to help communities analyze patterns, discover problems, and act to find solutions."

"The Dot Matrix: Some maps show us where to go. But the ones created at Columbia's Spatial Information Design Lab may show us where we're headed." - Columbia Magazine Million Dollar Blocks Press

SIDL's work and research ethos was featured with an article in Columbia Magazine: "More data, more maps, more stories. More voices participating in a conversation about how to view our cities, address their problems, and serve their residents. That’s the goal of Kurgan and her colleagues at SIDL, who, for the past eight years, have been training civic organizations, nonprofit groups, and ordinary citizens to tell their own stories through thematic cartography"

Columbia University and Thomson Reuters Launch Advanced Data Visualization Project Advanced Data Visualization Press

Thomson Reuters announces our new initiative: "Columbia University and Thomson Reuters today announced the launch of the Advanced Data Visualization Project (ADVP) based at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). The initiative, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, will facilitate research into data visualization and its implications for academia and industry in a world increasingly awash with data."

Change by Design: Laura Kurgan on Collaborative Mapping Million Dollar Blocks Events

In a daylong conference on June 30, 2012 the Ford Foundation brought together leaders in design, social innovation, art and journalism to think creatively about digital storytelling and cutting-edge tools to visualize, map and create narratives that inspire action.

"We Are Here Now / Spatial Information Design Lab / Columbia University" - ArchDaily Advanced Data Visualization Press

ArchDaily's Karen Cilento writes about "Here Now":
"Addicted to checking your favorite site, like ArchDaily, for constant updates, or checking in with Facebook or Foursquare? Don’t worry – you’re not alone, and Columbia’s Spatial Information Design Lab can prove it. In addition to sharing your whereabouts with friends, your geographic mark provides valuable insight in examining the psycho-geography and economic terrain of the city."

"Here Now! How Foursquare and Facebook Measure Voting With Your Feet in New York" Advanced Data Visualization Press

Untapped Cities writes about Here Now project: "The Spatial Information Lab at Columbia University has a new project which measures how people vote with their feet by using Foursquare and Facebook check-ins. The exhibit, entitled Here: Now Social Media and the Psychological City, is currently on display at Columbia University’s Avery Hall."

"States of Design 01: Visualization" Advanced Data Visualization Press

Domus reviews Exits in their States of Design 01: Visualization: "Commissioned by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, in Paris as part of a 2008 exhibition entitled Terre Natale and realised by a stellar team of architects, designers and programmers, Exit is a testimony to the political power of design."

Laura Kurgan: Human geographies Events
Laura Kurgan presents at the 2009 Pop Tech Conference. 
"Prison Blocks" - Atlantic Magazine Million Dollar Blocks Press

The Atlantic published an article by Laura Kurgan on SIDL's work in New Orleans: "Hurricane Katrina Displaced hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents; as they’ve returned, their struggles to remake their lives and communities have been well chronicled. But smaller waves of displacement, followed by straggling return, have been washing through the city, largely unremarked, for many years."

Million Dollar Blocks, exhibited at Into the Open Positoning Practice Million Dollar Blocks Exhibitions

"The exhibition Into the Open highlights America's rich history of architectural experimentation and explores the original ways architects today are working collaboratively to invigorate community activism and environmental policy. 

"Architecture and Justice," exhibited in Design and the Elastic Mind, MoMA 2008 Million Dollar Blocks Exhibitions

Architecture and Justice on view at MoMA, New York as part of an exhibition curated by Paola Antonelli.
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/#/14/
 

Design and the Elastic Mind, MoMA Million Dollar Blocks Exhibitions

Architecture and Justice featured in MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition: "Design and the Elastic Mind explores the reciprocal relationship between science and design in the contemporary world by bringing together design objects and concepts that marry the most advanced scientific research with attentive consideration of human limitations, habits, and aspirations."

"New York and the Vanguard of Digital Design" - The New York Times Million Dollar Blocks Press

Sewell Chan reviews "Design and the Elastic Mind," a new MoMA exhibition which features Architecture and Justice: "Several works in “Design and the Elastic Mind,” an exhibition that opens at the Museum of Modern Art on Sunday, offer intriguing and unexpected perspectives on New York...A design lab at Columbia University has traced the costs of incarceration in poor minority neighborhoods, demonstrating that taxpayers in some cases pay $1 million a year to imprison inmates from a single Brooklyn block."