Scientific Visualization across Disciplines: A Critical Introduction
MIT's course examines how scientific and technical visualizations are made and how much interpretive work goes into them. Students study a sequence of case studies drawn from fields where images and graphics carry the weight of an argument, from data plots to medical scans to engineering diagrams, and learn to read them as constructed artifacts rather than neutral pictures. The course draws on science and technology studies and critical art theory to question what a chart or diagram leaves out, who decided its conventions, and how those choices shape what counts as evidence. Materials include readings from STS and art theory alongside applied examples from science and engineering practice. The course is offered through MIT OpenCourseWare, so lecture notes, assignments, and case study materials are free to access, with no certificate offered on the OCW platform itself.