An unprecedented number of images surround us today through media ranging from print to cinema to the digital. This network of screens and images surround and entice us at various scales, from the smartphone to the IMAX theater. This course explores the intersections of two important vectors of representation: the visual, driven by imaging technologies that range from the human eye, to the analog camera, to computer vision; and the informational, driven by numerical representation, probabilistic trends, and data-driven systems. Drawing on the idea of the “visual archive” as it is understood in media archaeology to define the vast array of images circulating across locations and media platforms, this course will explore the intersections of visual studies and the tools and techniques of information studies and “big data"", specifically the visualization of data. In this course, we will explore the aesthetics, history, and politics of generating, understanding, and using visual data within the context of media and cultural studies. Navigating this visual archive means fostering new kinds of visual and informational literacy within the context of film studies as the boundaries between media and data become increasingly difficult to discern. This class asks how data visualizations fit into the field of media studies and visual culture both as an analytical tool and an object of study on its own? Drawing on historical and theoretical texts from film and media studies, semiotics, new media theory, and the digital humanities, this course helps foster an important critical understanding and engagement with the flow of images and information that circulate around us 24/7. [Tracks C, M]