Critical Spatial
Perspectives
on Data and AI
As an Associate Professor of Digital Media at Georgia Tech, I teach and conduct research on how data and AI infrastructures shape and are shaped by their settings.
Points of Orientation:
An Experiential Theory of Data *New Book Project*
Data are not merely representations of the world; they are points of orientation within it. They direct attention, shape affect, and condition how we experience our surroundings, ourselves, and others. Yet conventional, representational approaches to data, which are centered on objectivity and accuracy, obscure these experiential dimensions and limit our ability to reflect critically on what data do to us, not just for us.
This book develops an experiential theory of data across five dimensions: settings, attention, affect, intra-action, and aesthetics. Each dimension is grounded in a place-based design investigation—Map Room, Map Spot, Turbidity Wall, Chromatic Lens, and Plasmatic Mirror—that demonstrates how data function as experiential phenomena.
All Data Are Local:
Thinking Critically in a Data-Driven Society (MIT Press 2019)
My most recent book, All Data Are Local explains how to analyze “data settings,” not simply data sets. It is available to read through MIT Open Access here.
Interdisciplinary Media Arts Center
In addition to my faculty role, I am the executive director of the Interdisciplinary Media Arts Center, which fosters projects and pathways for researchers, students, and practitioners who want to make expressive use of innovative technologies.
Recent News
[2026 Spring] “Points of Orientation,” a lecture at the Data in Action Symposium, Leslie Humanities Center, Dartmouth College.
[2026 Spring) Interviewed (along with Dr. Sylvia Janicki) on “Lost in the Stacks: The Research Library Rock’n’roll Radio Show” for Episode 669: Scholarship in Place.
[2025 Fall] Received the Infrastructure Award from the Society for Social Studies of Science for “DigitalSTS,” along with collaborators David Ribes, Janet Vertesi, Carl DiSalvo, Laura Forlano, Steven J. Jackson, Daniela K. Rosner, and Hanna Rose Shell.
[2025 Fall] “Professor Yanni Loukissas Is Helping Us See Data Differently,” by Neema Tavakolian. Tech Square News coverage of recent research projects.
[2025 Summer] Interviewed on “The Policy Viz Podcast” with @jschwabish for “Data Are Local: Context, Power, and Storytelling.”
[2025 Summer] Awarded an NSF Grant from the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, with co-PI Richmond Wong to develop a Spatial STS Field School for place-based digital scholarship.
If you are interested in learning more about my work, please send me an email.