When we organize and visualize data, we make it meaningful and communicative. But in so doing, we also give it a form—an aesthetic shape—that did not previously exist. In this course, we will consider aesthetics as a crucial, but often overlooked, component of data science. Our goal will be to develop the basic aesthetic literacy needed to critically consider the ways we present information. The course contains two interrelated units: first, we will study the vocabulary that 20th-century art critics developed to talk about the sensory, emotional, and political qualities of art.