For the purposes of this assignment, I explored the Inventing Abstractions network diagram, which maps the nexus of relationships among the artists represented in the exhibit, Inventing Abstractions 1910-1925, all of whom played a significant role in the creation or development of ‘a new modern language for the arts’ – abstract art. The vectors or nodes in the diagram connect those individuals and artists whose acquaintance with one another during these years could be documented. There are two types of nodes – orange and white. The orange nodes represent the more popular artists who have over 24 connections in the network and the white nodes represent those artists who have fewer than 24 connections within the network.
What is really special about this network is that it is interactive, aesthetic and also informative. The interactive aspect of the visual makes it fun to play around with. If you click on a specific vector, it will generate detailed information about the artist – his birth place, his works, and interests. It also highlights or zooms in on the specific network of the individual artist and makes it easier to see who their specific connections are. This project is a great collaboration between the exhibition’s curatorial and design team and Paul Ingram, Kravis Professor of Business and Mitali Banerjee of Columbia Business School.
This is a good example of the wide use of networks in visualisations today and the power of visual media in depicting data in a structured and aesthetic way.
Hi Maanya, I’m happy you chose to explore the Inventing Abstractions project; I was hoping someone will post about it as it is super interesting. I liked how the researchers decided to assign colors orange and white to identify more popular artists.
Hi Maanya! I agree with Luisa in that the colors definitely add a helpful and aesthetically pleasing element to the network. I also really like that you can click on artists to see their connections more clearly and to see more information about them that isn’t immediately visible when viewing the full network.
Maanya, I love your choice of website. Like Henrie and Luisa before me, I also appreciate how the researchers made a scale and colored their artists based on the number of connections between artists. This makes it aesthetically pleasing but also a lot easier to identify essential artists. This is a wonderful example of a well-planned network.