master-data-design-01 730 hours of violence, Domestic Data Streamers

Master in Data Design

Transforming data into understandable and honest information is a matter of societal survival in this world of fake news and “alternative facts”. Our Master in Data Design is a hands-on experience harnessing data for crafting information and making a change.

Apply now

Welcome

In the Master in Data Design, we learn from the latest practices in research, data analysis, visualisation and storytelling to create projects beyond classical formats.

Nowadays, we have access to almost everything, anywhere and anytime, but that doesn’t mean we know the world any better.

Last year we collectively generated, collected and stored more data than in the five previous millennia of recorded human history. We are addicted to those pushes on our phones but cannot process them.

We may have heard or read there has been a two-degree increase in the temperature of the planet or a 1.5 average in the dispersion of a virus, but we have no idea what that means.

Misinformation and fake news have become just as significant as factual information. Our role as information and data designers is vital for all these reasons. In this Master in Data Design, we will create tools to help our societies find their way in this chaotic scenario, creating empathetic systems capable of extracting meaning and communicating messages.

Access and Admission Requirements: Due to its particular transdisciplinary nature, the Master in Data Design is open to professionals and students from different educational backgrounds and experiences.

data-design-video

We broaden data design

This is a call to expand the margins of standard data practices, information design, challenge conventional wisdom about data and answer questions like:

  • How does data visualisation influence our perception of the world?
  • Can we design our way out of data overload?
  • How can we cope with infoxication?
  • Can data design help societies shed some light on their reality and improve it?

We will address different disciplines: sociology, communication strategy or cartography, audiovisual research methods, and data science. We will deal with sound, storytelling or journalism to create all sorts of crossovers with a critical spirit and always from design.


How we do it

Master en Data Design programme

1 Foundations

Bases on information design and data visualization.

1.1 Data as raw material
1.2 Space as data
1.3 The hidden link
1.4 Data visualization
1.5 Data representation
1.6 Visual explanation

2 Master’s project

During a whole semester you will have the opportunity to make your ideas come true, put into practice what you have learned during the course and use the city of Barcelona as a field of experimentation, data collection and laboratory.

2.1 Data Experience
2.2 Data Communication
2.3 Theoretical and methodological framework of the investigation
2.4 Design Criticism

3 Perspectives

We will study the design of information through a critical lens, knowing that it can be read in many ways and affects us in many other ways.

3.1 Critical Media
3.2 Data Boundaries
3.3 Data for the Common Good
3.4 Audiovisual
3.5 Storytelling

4 Projects

Information design is like a nesting doll: there are individual smaller problems within each problem. We will work on them with the help of experts in tutored projects that address specific topics.

4.1 Information Systems
4.2 Data Beyond Screens
4.3 Symbolic Alphabet / Iconography

5 Workshops

Learning by doing: Intensive, hands-on design experiences on data design issues.

5.1 Who’s Afraid Of Technology?
5.2 Data Journalism
5.3 Degree Showcase

6 Capsules

Data is everywhere; in how we move and what we listen to. We will explore different fields where data and information are present and set up their environment.

6.1 Data & Nature
6.2 Data & Drawing
6.3 Data & Performance
6.4 Data & Processing
6.5 Data & Sound

7 Events

Listening is learning. Especially when professionals, emerging or established, share their life experiences and about their professional careers.

7.1 International talks
7.2 Masters’ Talks

If you want to know more about the Master in Data Design download the brochure here or check the master’s website:

Do you want to know more about the Masters’ School?

Each academic year, students with very diverse professional and cultural profiles of more than 80 nationalities from all over the world attend their master’s or postgraduate training at Elisava. We want to promote connections and networks among students beyond the context of each master’s degree to promote the exchange of knowledge through very diverse projects: we organize interdisciplinary workshops and conferences; transdisciplinary projects with students from several master’s degrees; collaborations with companies, institutions and NGOs…

Interdisciplinary workshops Collaborations with companies, institutions and NGOs Elisava Masters’ Talks and lectures Elisava Alumni

Masters’ Scholarships

Do you want to study the Master in Data Design at Elisava? In this section you will be able to check all the information on the annual call for scholarships, which recognize, reward and disseminate the talent and excellence of future master’s students.

Elisava Masters’ Scholarships