Calculating Empires is a research data viz project that explores the way technology has evolved over five centuries and how it has influenced and changed with society. The main themes, according to the website, are communication, computation, classification and control and it digs into areas such as colonialism, the military, automation, and biomedicine.
Every reading of this work is different, and you’re invited to draw your own connections. Hundreds of individual drawings and texts span centuries of conflict, enclosure, and control. We suggest taking your time and reading slowly – a radical act in an era of speed and simplification. A close examination of these patterns over several centuries reveals the ascendance of particular ideas and technologies, the concentration of power and wealth, and the colonization of land, infrastructure, and human lifeworlds.
It’s really extensive so you might want to take an hour or so to delve into a history of technology. I never thought I’d see porn and A Trip To The Moon so close together.
Filed under: data data viz history machine learning research telecommunication