TY - JOUR TI - Measuring the face of the sky DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T39P340K PY - 2016 AB - This dissertation is a cultural history of weather data that charts the evolution of data collection and visualization practices from the 1847 Smithsonian Institution Meteorological Project to NASA's 2012 GOES-14 satellite. While the history of meteorological science has tended to approach the rise of standard data practices through a study of institutional or government-centered histories, this dissertation positions volunteer, amateur, and cooperative practices at the center of data-making rather than at its edge. The first two chapters analyze data collection and visualization practices from 1800-1870, arguing that popular modes of weather data collection and visualization began by employing the sensing body as the first instrument of data labor. The remaining three chapters chart how data practice strategically moved away from local networks of touch to global and semi-galactic collection, transmission, and visualization modes. Rooted in historical archival practice as well as traditional literary methodologies, this dissertation bridges methodological and topical gaps between new media studies and environmental history by analyzing a popular genealogy of environmental data in the United States. Taking data as a form of culture, this project finally argues that we should study weather data as a cultural practice not to deconstruct the veracity of data, but rather to make full sense of the ways humans are implicated in weather and climate systems, from modes of measurement to the release of greenhouse gases. KW - American Studies KW - Meteorology--United States--History KW - Meteorological satellites--United States LA - eng ER -