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Image by Marc Thunis

Welcome to UFO Sightings Across America

The phrase “UFO Sightings”, when appearing in front of people’s eyes, brings the meaning of “mysteriosity”, “complexity”, and “curiosity”. However, even topics as novel and interesting as UFO sightings, when viewed through the corresponding data (including time, location, duration, and descriptions), can still reflect not only information about the data and UFOs themselves but also discussions about the current social conditions and contemporary issues. In this process, it is necessary to relate and utilize the theories we have learned in class: intersectionality theory, Reader response criticism, and critical disability theory,etc. Simply focusing on “UFO Sightings” and “Unknown Creatures” would lead to technological determinism narrative, where people tend to passively accept the fact, or maybe not necessarily the fact, that there exists creatures that are more intelligent, more technologically advanced, and more civilized than we do. Nevertheless, for people who are fascinated by the mysteriosity and complexity of UFO sightings, this project aims to provide relevant resources for people to better conduct research.

Technical Description

Asset

For assets, we will include multimedia narratives, including maps, photographs as well as video recordings to support the analysis of the dataset, and provide more diverse perspectives of the narrative.

Image by Pierre Châtel-Innocenti

Service

The intention of this project is to provide comprehensive resources to the readers who are interested in UFO sightings. In order to achieve this goal, we have decided to take the following steps to best help our readers to understand the materials.

Image by charlesdeluvio

Interface

Our interface is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, ensuring that users can easily navigate and interact with the wealth of information available on UFO sightings across America. We have focused on two primary aspects: categorization and accessibility.

Image by Killian Cartignies

Team Members

1 / Pok Chi Yang

My major is data science, and my job in this project is to do data critique.

2 / Rachel Xu

I’m an upcoming junior studying media studies and data sciences. I’m working on the storyboard and the framework for our project.

3 / Irelia Lu

Majoring in Computer Science. I’m working on the construction of our mini-site.

4 / Arya Goyal

I’m a sophomore studying Economics and Data Science, and I am working on the narrative for this project.

5 / Aradhya

I’m a rising Junior studying Economics and Data Science, and I am working on the narrative for this project.

6 / Yaohui Wang

I’m a rising senior with a major in data science. My main work on the project is the storyboard, which provides the outline for the project.

7 / Jessica Zhang

I’m a rising junior majoring in media studies and minoring in journalism and data science. I’m in charge of the About Page and Annotated Bibliography for this project.

Contact

Thanks for submitting!

Bibliography

Williams, G. H. "Disability, Universal Design, and the Digital Humanities." Debates in the Digital Humanities, edited by Matthew K. Gold, University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

Bordalejo, Barbara, and Roopika Risam. Intersectionality in Digital Humanities. Arc Humanities Press, new edition, Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/71642.

Theory: Reader-Response Criticism
 

Acknowledgement

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the various individuals and institutions that supported our project:
CORGIS: For providing access to essential datasets and descriptions for visualization and analysis.
University of California, Berkeley Libraries: For providing access to essential resources such as scholar articles that guide our direction in analyzing and researching related events of UFO sightings.
Professor Andressa Macena Maia: For her extraordinary teaching at class, and interesting designs of class activities as well as assignments.
GSIs of Digital Humanities class: Manish Kumar, Manish Kumar, Rebecca Baugh for their patient instructions, invaluable guidance, and thoughtful feedback throughout the project.

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