Jaedyn - Information visualization & distant reading

 

While reading about data mining, I felt this would be an extremely useful way to collect large amounts of data in a short amount of time. Large websites and databases can be very intimidating and I know for me, it definitely turns me away when doing research. They can be boring and filled with so much information it honestly makes my head hurt! APIs and other data mining software is very intriguing to me and I would love to use some in my own research. Multimodal analysis seemed like a familiar topic for me. I feel that a lot of the data and information we consume today is a combination of images or videos and text. I find that multimodal data can be much easier to interpret and understand than plain text or images. 

Distant reading confused me a little bit. Both in chapter 6 and “What is Distant Reading?” I found myself questioning how useful it could truly be. I see the use in it when creating a database or searching for specific information from specific authors or dates and etcetera. I don’t see the benefit in using it when searching for actual information and importance behind the data. But maybe that’s not what it’s used for and I misinterpreted these sections. I would love to hear other classmates' thoughts and perceptions of it! As for Voyant tools, I am interested to see how the software works and what I really get from using it. I feel actively participating in distant reading will give me a better grasp of the concept and its uses.

I really enjoyed the chapter on informational visualization since visuals are one of the best ways I personally interpret data. I like to make graphs or even infographics to display information in fun and creative ways. I believe engaging visuals bring interest to your works and draw in more viewers, readers, or users. This is one of the main reasons I decided to analyze On Broadway. The visuals immediately captured me and my interest compared to other projects which just seemed flat to me. 

Honestly, I didn't love Six Degrees of Francis Bacon. This visual was a little overwhelming and hard to follow. I played around with it for a little and understood what they were going for but felt the creators fell flat on the design part. Unfortunately, the link for Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow didn’t work for me at all so I am unable to analyze that piece.