For my Network Analysis project, I looked at the MoMA Inventing Abstraction Project. There are many parts to this project, including displays of abstract art and descriptions of the artists who were pioneers for the abstract art style. The biggest and most interesting part of the project is a map, featuring all of the artists who are most influential in creating the abstract art technique. Red vectors are drawn between the artists that had documented, personal relationships with each other between 1910-1925 (the time period which the MoMA project is focused on).
My favorite part about the connection map is how flexible it is. When you first look at the map, there are clear nodes, which are the artists who had the highest number of connections with other abstract artists. These are highlighted in red, to distinguish them from the edges, which are most of the other abstract artists.
However, this map is very versatile and the nodes and edges can change depending on the scope. If you click on the name of an artist, a smaller map pops up where they are the center of the map and are surrounded by the other artists they have connections with. I loved being able to interact with the map in this way. When you select on a specific artists, alongside the smaller network map, you can access a summary of their bibliographic information and see what some of their art looks like. These smaller slides taught me a lot and helped the project feel more personal and relevant.
Even though I really enjoyed looking at this project, I wish that the initial map wasn’t so visually overwhelming. It can be hard to see the individual names over the magnitude of connections. I also wish that the connection vectors were categorized some way. I would be really curious to see who was especially close and who only vaguely knew each other. It would be cool if they had different colors or symbols for different colors of connections.
