The course consists of lectures and plenary discussions, group work and poster presentations. The course includes guided tours of the Kiruna station of the Esrange Space Center and of the Abisko Scientific Research Station ANS. Lecturers are Petra Gehring, Gabriele Gramelsberger, Mikael Hård, Sabine Höhler, Jens Lachmund, Josef Wiemeyer, Nina Wormbs.
Lectures and discussions focus on the following topics:
- the co-construction of data and instruments on the one hand and the five senses on the other, with a focus on technologies of visualization;
- remote-sensing devices and the perception of environments: meteorological instruments, satellite-mediated data, computer applications, simulations and forecasts;
- concepts and tools of monitoring public space: Internet surveillance, population screenings, cell phone positioning; electronic tagging, collecting smart-phone user data;
- the political and economic power of objectified data: environmental statistics, resource surveys;
- the role of images in economic, political, and military affairs: air-surveillance photos, emission charts, land-use maps, climate models.