Author: melody0502

I chose to analyze the short story, Self-Made Man, by Mark Gevisser. This story traces the changes in attitudes towards gender-nonconforming children. It focuses on the story of Liam, an adopted child from China who was born female, but began living as a boy at the age of thirteen. At the age of 18, Liam took a big step into his gender transition process. The story brings in numerous characters with varying degrees of influence and support for Liam.

The story also traces the history of the gender transition process, detailing different attitudes in Western Europe versus in America and depicting changing perspectives from the medical community. It details opposing and supporting attitudes and ties Liam’s experiences, as well as the author’s own experiences with gender-nonconforming behavior.

I made my edge list by first listing out all the main characters in the story in relation to Liam. I then assigned each character a number from 1 to 5 based on their relationship with Liam. 1 means directly influenced, such as Liam’s parents. 2 means supportive but less influence, for example Liam’s doctor. 3 means acquaintance, referring to Liam’s acquaintances at school. 4 means affiliated public supporter, referring to a LGBTQ supporter. 5 means unaffiliated public supporter, such as Barack Obama. After creating my first fusion table, I inflated these 5 numbers, stretching them out from 0 to 200 to create a more pronounced difference in the actual network graph.

Creating the fusion table, I was able to illuminate the wide network of supporters in Liam’s life and map out the level of influence. It shows how intertwined all of these stories are and how Liam was able to interact with so many characters. For example, Liam’s 2 mothers were assigned the number 1 for being direct supporters and influencers of his transition. However, the subsequent fusion table was limited in that I could not distinguish whether the influence was positive or negative. I gave Liam’s mother, Beth’s first partner a 1 as well, but the support from this character was negative.

Varying degrees of support were also not depicted in this network data visualization. For example, Beth’s father become more supportive of Liam over time, but this detail is not depicted in his assigned number of 2.

I chose to analyze the Mapping Decadence project. These maps were created with the digital tool ArcGIS and show relationship between Decadent writers of the 19^th century in Paris and their publishers based on location. Authors included in the maps are Joris Karl Huysmans, Jean Lorrain, Rachilde and Marcel Schwob. The different authors are located on different tabs and are designated with a specific colored pin, while publishers are labeled in red. Clicking on a pin opens up a pop-up box with details on books published, where the author was living or working and other information. The pins are linked based on certain time periods in that author’s life. A separate tab also puts all of the authors together on one map, along with publishers.

The map reveals details about the location of a particular author, which books were published at that time and place and which publisher was utilized. However, this map only reveals a very cut and dry version of location data and publishing timeline from the perspective of an outside observer. It obscures any detail on why an author moved, or why certain books were written at a certain time or why different publishers were used for different books. It makes very little assumptions about the author, which makes the mapping a very objective look at the author, but does not link together a narrative about the Decadent authors’ lives.

Turnball’s point about mapmakers determining what is and, more importantly, what isn’t in the representation is very clear here because I am learning a lot about how the authors moved around spatially but nothing about the authors themselves. The tab with all Decadent authors on one map is also extremely interesting but I don’t see any descriptions on how the authors interacted or connected.

An alternate map would definitely have more of a narrative angle. In particular, I would include a blurb about each author in their respective mapping tabs. In this blurb, I would make sure to have a timeline and relevant biographical details during significant timeline points. I would also expand on each pop-up pin in an attempt to relate each pin to major works and include how location might have impacted each work.

Perhaps a tab with a publisher emphasis might be useful as well. I would see if there were common publishers between Decadent authors and try to find linkages between the certain locations and popular publishers in that area.

Link to my website

I used our group dataset, titled NY Tenements. Our dataset catalogues links to photo records, in addition to date, some locations of photographs and content. A record in this dataset is made up of the categories Item URL, Note, Subject Topic, Date, Volume and Title. The data is pretty raw and hard to interpret.

Originally, I was planning on creating a gallery visualization of the photo collection through Palladio. However, because the links are to records of the photo, not of the photo itself, I had to scrap the idea. I can already see potential problems working with this data, as there is not much wiggle room to experiment with different data visualizations.

Fortunately, I was able to make a simple data visualization with Wordle. Wordle is a straight forward and easy to use platform that analyzes large amounts of text and creates word clouds. Words that appear with greater frequency are featured in larger sizes. After generating the word cloud, you can tweak it with different font sizes, colors, directions and layouts.

Before creating the visualization, I wasn’t able to see any patterns in the dataset. I only saw that the dataset included tenements located in New York and that they were taken in 1934. After generating the visualization I was able to see a few prominent things. First of all, most of the tenements are located in the Manhattan and Brooklyn area. A few of the tenements are in the Bronx area. In addition, there seem to be a large number of storefronts in comparison to apartments. The majority of photographs also seem to display vacant places or places made of brick.

These conclusions were definitely not apparent upon first glance. It impresses me that a tool as simple as Wordle can generate something with so many insights. I can see that the possibilities are aplenty for creating a narrative from this project and I think this platform is a great starting point for anyone looking to get a big picture view of their data. For example, we could correlate tenements listed with vacancies and locations with possible data on evictions in the area. We could also correlate the storefronts and their locations with storefronts in the same locations today to see how ownership has changed over time. We could also examine the vacant tenements to explore whether more apartments or storefronts stood empty.

I looked at the Funds Relating to Housing and Homelessness dataset. This dataset includes information on the different funds supporting housing initiatives for the homeless population. The data includes financial data breaking down the individual funds into outstanding, receivables and liabilities. It has been organized into clear depictions on where the fund is from, what it is eligible to be used for and how that purpose is broken down.

A record in this dataset consists of the following major categories: Fund, Fund Name, Cash, Department Name, Fund Purpose, Sources of Funds, Eligible Uses, Fund Category, Ending Fund Balance, Assets, Liabilities, Grant Receivable, Other Assets, Current collected Revenue, Cash Disbursements, Outstanding Commitment, Date Fund Established, Fund Group Name and Fund Type Name.

Wallack’s and Srinivasan’s definition of ontology states that it is a system “of categories and their interrelations by which groups order and manage information about the people, places, things and events around them”. This definition is applicable to this dataset because the data establishes a relationship between the donors, the general public and the government systems operating the flow of funds to these housing initiatives. It provides a clear and transparent picture to see how donations and taxpayer dollars are allocated and what those funds are used for.

This ontology makes the most sense for the government and researchers in seeing how funds are broken down and distributed to aid housing for the homeless population.  It makes sense because it shows what each individual fund is used for, as well as how much is leftover. This puts the funds in a very logical and transparent order.

This dataset tells me that a lot of different funds have been set up for housing for the homeless. However, this funding is primarily for housing rehabilitation and housing preservation. Not as much funding is allocated to the building of new affordable housing for the homeless.

Details about the completion of homeless and housing projects are left out of this dataset. In addition, there is not much information regarding the livability and effectiveness of this housing for the underserved population. It is one thing to put something on paper, but it is another to see these housing initiatives in action.

If I was starting over with data collection, I would be interviewing the occupants of the refurbished housing. I would ask questions on if the availability of housing has helped get them back on their feet. I would also ask if these housing initiatives are sustainable solutions to their situation. In addition, I would ask if the housing is suitably furnished, built and located to fit basic living needs.

 

I looked at the “Finding Aid for the Collection of Material about Japanese American Internment, 1929-1956 bulk 1942-1946”. This collection is made up of publications, press releases by the War Relocation Authority, phonographic recordings, yearbooks and pamphlets regarding and created by Japanese American internees and advocacy groups. Additional primary resources include speeches, article clippings, reproduced sketches and masters’ theses. Subjects covered include segregation within camps, loyalty of Japanese Americans, resettlement discussions and the internment process. The internment camps in particular that are mentioned include the Manzanar and Minidoka internment camps.

I really enjoyed scrolling through the contents and seeing the collection of resources compiled within this finding aid. Something that surprised me was the lack of personal perspectives from Japanese Americans in the internment camps. Most of the resources were official pamphlets and press releases instead of things like journal entries or interviews.

A historical narrative you might be able to tell from this collection is a narrative regarding how a democratic system was installed within the camps and how it dealt with segregation issues amongst internees. This collection would be useful in creating this narrative due to a variety of resources. In particular, we might be able to use the thesis by Richard B. Rice titled “The Manzanar Relocation Center” tracing the forces creating a democratic way of life in Manzanar. This thesis covers early history of the camp, problems with community government and employment problems. It would be useful because it directly touches on the democratic system within the internment camps, but this narrative would be missing a few resources. Notably, we would be missing a primary resource, such as a journal from an internee, on daily life within the internment camps. I would remedy this by conducting primary research and interviewing leaders in the internment camps to find an insider perspective.

Another historical narrative you could tell from this collection is a narrative regarding internee attitudes and experiences with prejudice after their internment and how they assimilated to life after release. A useful resource in this narrative could be the “United States Dept. of the Interior. Division of budget and Administrative Management. People in Motion: The Postwar Adjustment of the Evacuated Japanese Americans. 1947”. This resource covers public attitudes toward resettlement, economic adjust of internees, evacuation loss and remedial legislation and social adjustment. Another useful resource could be the article by Robert O’Brien, “Selective Dispersion as a Factor in the Solution of the Nisei Problem”. This article talks about the dispersion of second generation Japanese Americans through college education as a solution to the assimilation process. These 2 resources would be useful because it covers an outside perspective on the assimilation process and policies that were undertaken to more comprehensively integrate Japanese Americans back into society. However, if this narrative were based entirely on this collection, a few resources would be missing. Primarily, we would be missing firsthand accounts from Japanese Americans regarding their experiences post-internment. I would remedy this by conducting ethnographical field work, interviewing Japanese Americans who came out of the internment camps about their experiences with post WWII prejudices and their assimilation experiences.

For this week’s blog post, I’m choosing to analyze the DH project, Early African American Film. This web-based database is a compilation of early African American silent race film information gathered from primary and secondary resources. Information on these films created before the 1930s include details on specific actors, directors, production companies, among others. The purpose of this database is to promote awareness about this period in film history and to educate interested individuals on how this data is presented. As can be seen below, this database is presented with an easy to use navigation, with tabs distinguishing different aspects of the project and outlining the process of presentation. The different tabs give visitors a walk through the thought process of the team, as well as types of data used and how the data was reorganized using data visualization tools to fit the purposes of this project. In addition, the home page gives links to tutorials on how this project was put together.

I thought this project was extremely easy to navigate and understand. I really enjoyed the use of tabs and clearly depicted data visualizations. The tutorials and links to how the data visualizations were created were also extremely helpful. The time map in particular was one of my favorite visualizations because it showed how early African American film production companies have come and go over time. I thought it would have been even cooler if they had associated this rise and fall with any specific event in relation to African American rights.

Source

Source of data includes records on early race films produced from 1909 to 1930. Record information includes details on associated peoples and production companies. Primary sources such as notes, correspondence and conversation were also used. Data collected was filtered and cleaned up based on whether the film had African American self-determination. This database also defines early African American film as having some combination of the following aspects:

• African American Cast
• Produced by an African American owned company
• Intended for exhibition to African American audiences
• Produced outside the Hollywood system
• Designed to counter prevailing caricatures of African Americans on film

Process

This data was processed using data visualizations based on connections the team saw within the dataset. Before the visualization, the records were cleaned up and filtered based on their working definition of Early African American race films. It was then sorted into a relational database for easy navigation, pictured below.

Presentation

Data presentations include charts made with plot.ly, time maps and a network graph made with web-mapping platform CartoDB shown below. The nodes signify entities and the lines signify a connection between them. The network graph includes all associated people in relation to silent films selected by the team. The people include actors, directors, producers, writers, cinemtographers and “otherwise involved”.

The charts include the number of films premiering every year, with a peak in 1921.

The time maps show the locations of African-American based production companies by founding year. The still maps show the geographical expansion of African American film related companies, signifying a strong Eastern influence.