“Demystifying Networks” was unusually interesting to me, since networks are indeed mysterious now that I realized that I have given little thought to what is a network. I have heard the term network many times, usually when the subject is about the internet, and always thought of it as how information or things are interrelated.
Scott Weingart explains in “Demystifying Networks” that nodes are the assortment of “stuff”. For instance, an assortment of different shoes are nodes. And each pair of shoe is a node. A pair of shoes has a brand, size, and color. Therefore a node may include these attributes. He further explains that nodes can have types; therefore we can include the brand of each pair of shoe as a node type. This will create a different set of nodes that has different attributes. This process of adding different node types from one node can extend, making the node multimodal. A pair of nodes is considered bimodal. We can make a bimodal node multimodal by adding another type of node from the second node. We can add products, and this will create a different node with particular attributes. Weingart addresses the pitfalls in Digital Humanities where the amount and types of nodes are too much and too complicated for the tools of network-science. Also, he furthers this argument by noting that the result of the network analysis from Digital Humanity nodes can mean something else. He explains that, “Humanistic data are almost by definition uncertain, open to interpretation, flexible, and not easily definable”.
These nodes are the characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This is an example of how data visualization can over simplify the meaning of the information. It is also an example of how the network can be open to interpretation. The network analysis of the characters does not explain their relationship to one another. The relationship of Hamlet with the Ghost is open to interpretation. The ghost, supposedly the ghost of Hamlet’s father, can be an impostor or a delusion and may be Hamlet himself. Because the data visualization is “open to interpretation” and is” not easily definable”, a good understanding of the text will be required for the data visualization to be useful. The idea that Hamlet is the center of this network is in itself debatable. A reading of the text can bring just a good an understanding of Hamlet without the network analysis. Multiple network analysis can be a way to address the complexity of the work.
Work Cited:
http://www.scottbot.net/HIAL/?p=6279
https://www.google.com/search?q=hamlet+network+analysis&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=799&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=eS1hVOrwEc2rogTozIDIDg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=P0Yb1RqgHswh_M%253A%3BLRtXYYDmiRRyiM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.newleftreview.org%252Fassets%252Fimages%252F3020501large.gif%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fnewleftreview.org%252FII%252F68%252Ffranco-moretti-network-theory-plot-analysis%3B600%3B524