Statistics and numbers
are fascinating to me, especially when combined with different info-graphics and
visualizations. I was incredibly happy to stumble upon this beautiful exercise
in data visualization just before this week’s topic went up.
One of the questions
which statistical analysis can answer better than any other method is generally
a question of amounts, ‘how many?’ being the most obvious. In the case of this
project, Adam Calhoun created code to reduce novels to their punctuation. The
program outputs the punctuation in a giant wall of raw data, as shown below. He
then processed this data to create frequency graphs and look at how punctuation
use has changed over time.
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| Source: A. Calhoun, https://medium.com/@neuroecology/punctuation-in-novels-8f316d542ec4#.5mxcgeoqt |
Frequency graphs are standard outputs, but the thing that really caught my attention was his addition
of heat maps. The thing I like best about the heat map visualizations (shown
below) is that they seem to convey emotion of their own, much like the novels
their data are derived from. From the bright red of Romeo and Juliet, to the
constant back and forth of Pride and Prejudice, to the moody sweeps of darkness
in the works of Edgar Allen Poe, these visualizations give us a new way to
consider punctuation, so easily overlooked when reading.
Heat maps of punctuation. Source: A. Calhoun, https://medium.com/@neuroecology/punctuation-in-novels-8f316d542ec4#.5mxcgeoqt
If this has piqued
your curiosity, check out the original blog post in the sources section, and if
it’s really caught your attention, check out the source code on github and
reduce your favourite novel to punctuation and see your results! As an
afterthought, this could also be a fun way of considering essays and academic
writing. If nothing else, it might make semicolon abuse obvious.
Sources:
Calhoun, A. J. (2016, February 15). Punctuation in novels. Retrieved
February 23, 2016, from
https://neuroecology.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/punctuation-in-novels-2/
Find the source code
here: https://github.com/adamjcalhoun/punctuation/
Original blog post
here: https://neuroecology.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/punctuation-in-novels-2/
All images in this
post credited to A. Calhoun, found on: https://medium.com/@neuroecology/punctuation-in-novels-8f316d542ec4#.5mxcgeoqt
This is very interesting, thanks for sharing! These heat maps become a kind of artwork in their own right. I am definitely going to use the github link to test this out later on my favourite novel.
ReplyDeleteIt also reminds me of a visualization I came across a while ago that maps the daily routines of creative people: https://podio.com/site/creative-routines
I would be hesitant to take this information at face value, but it is certainly an interesting way of trying to understand the creative routine and how creativity factors in with the other obligations of daily life.
This is so neat! It's so interesting to see how people who are considered to have been the great minds of our time all operated in such different ways (even when they shared a country or period of time).
Delete...also some of these are just plain hilarious (Victor Hugo took a daily 'ice bath on the roof'???)