Architectural historians have long been concerned with the ways in which authority is manifested through the structures and spaces of the state, and with how those spaces are experienced.1 At the heart of this research is the relationship between our sources and our subjects. Information about palaces, prisons, borders, and public spaces often comes from, or is controlled by, the state, while the stories we, as researchers and writers, increasingly seek to tell about marginalized or oppressed communities cut across, if not against, the state’s interests. As “information” has morphed into “data,” and the breadth, depth, and range of those data have grown beyond our imagination, these spaces of authority have come to be constituted and controlled through digital tools and means. Scholars rely on these same data and tools to document, analyze, and understand vulnerable communities, making our subjects into sites of intersection and contestation. In such a...

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