CIRCA:TextArc
From CIRCA
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Revision as of 23:15, 19 November 2010
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Contents |
Introduction to TextArc
* Visualizing the structure of text * A text display program: "a visual index" * Visualizing the whole: full text on outer spiral * Visualizing the concordance: words repeated inside with text location determining position ("rubber band") * Visualizing associations: word pairs are linked * Highly interactive * Artistic design
Significance
* "The first accurate cyber-accountant of literature that is capable of analysing the content and structure of a text" * Influential: seen by thousands; inspired other text visualization projects, including a visualization of the history of information visualization, for an information visualization conference (InfoVis) * Boundaries between art - design - text - data - science * Highly interactive * Explores relationship between structure and meaning - but how much meaning is inherent in structure? * Importance is based on frequency, connection is based on co-location: privileges the word as discrete unit * Usefulness vs reading a Review
Audience and Purpose
* Audience: people who need to filter a text quickly * To expose the structure implied by word distribution * To allow deeper interpretation based on structure * To expose timing and interconnection * "Suppose you have 5 minutes to understand a 500 page book with no index or chapters..."
Technologies
* TextArc is a Java applet, typically run in a web browser * Java is an Operating System-independent programming language released by Sun in 1995 * Text is an input parameter * Links to Project Gutenberg (1000s of texts as input) * Other input could be: o E-mails archives o Legal documents o Source code o Financial news updates o Genomics
History
* Conceived, designed and developed by Bradford Paley * Teaches interaction design as “cognitive engineering” at Columbia University. Consultant for Wall Street * Originally conceived as a text analysis tool * Released in 2002 * Banff Center for the Arts * Columbia University * SIGGRAPH Art Show ("working artist") * New York Public Library plasma screen * Whitney Museum of Modern Art ARTPORT gallery * Grand Prize (Non-Interactive Digital Art Award) at Japan Media Arts Festival 2002 (for poster of Alice) * Places & Spaces Part 4:2 (text: "History of Science") 2006 * Google Project Room at Chelsea Art Museum 2010