Progress
Since the first pitch of our final project, we have narrowed down our focus to researching and visualizing Arts events that have taken place in the Weitz over the years. We emailed Shannon Lien, who handles the Arts @ Carleton Calendar Web Page, Doug Bratland from ITS, and Steve Richardson, the Director of the Arts at Carleton, for datasets relating to the art events and the RSS feed for the Calendar Web Page. We have manually begun to gather and add data that we can find about the events, artists, and hosting departments to a Google Sheets document. We have downloaded the PDFs of the Weitz floor plans that we will be using as tile layers in ArcGIS to create a map of the events and their metadata.
The problems or issues we have run into are the lack of an RSS feed or summarized version of data about the arts events, and our skillset not matching up with the idealized vision of what our project will look like.
Our initial plan remains the same, but we are considering alternative methods to approach it. For example, we might have to significantly sacrifice the quantity of data we visualize because we have to manually enter it ourselves. The solution to not knowing how exactly to achieve the vision of our project is to do more research and ask for help from Austin if and when we need to.
Tools and techniques
We are going to be using ArcGIS to use location as a variable to tell a larger story about what events take place in which rooms of the Weitz and answer questions like which spaces are most popular and for what kind of events. We plan on doing this by using Weitz floor plans as imported tile layers in ArcGIS and using Map Notes to create polygons around all the spaces in use for Arts Events. We will color-code different event categories to add more meaning to our visualizations.
We are thinking of using Timeline JS to depict a chronological representation of all the arts events and exhibitions that take place on campus as a whole and not just in the Weitz. We will be limited to the information available on the Arts Calendar, which could overlook certain events like the ones hosted by student organizations or the Cave.
We are also thinking of using Flourish to create charts and visualizations that could highlight other interesting relationships we find in our data that are not highlighted in the previous two methods.
Deliverables
Have our manual data collected before class on Tuesday (Week 9), and start using it to play around with different ways of visualizing it on Flourish and ArcGIS. Have a solidified idea of all our visualizations by the end of class on Thursday (Week 9). Use the weekend to figure out how we are going to present our data and do any of the write-ups we need to do. Use class on Tuesday (Week 10) to put it all together.
Is your project still on track?
Even with a few setbacks, our project is still on track. We still have time to work out the uncertainties that still linger, especially with the help of Austin and Will.
Personal messages:
Mai: I added the data about the event’s duration, start and end dates, and times. I also helped to input some of the events’ descriptions. I did a text analysis of all of the events’ descriptions and found the most common words.
Tonushree: So far, I have helped in planning the deliverables for our project, emailing faculty for data, adding event metadata into the Google Sheets, and writing up the blog posts. I will continue to help add metadata, and do the ArcGIS mapping of the events.
Clark: I helped add data to our spreadsheet that we need to track manually (Information about the artists and the type of event being hosted within the Weitz). I also helped with the emailing and trying to request the RSS feed from ITS. I also plan on setting up our website soon to present to the group and get feedback on how to move forward.
Citations:
Map, Campus. “Campus Map – Carleton College.” Carleton, February 22, 2024. https://www.carleton.edu/map/.
Music Additions Floor Plans. Accessed February 24, 2024. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/740/2021/12/Academic_Calendar_22_23.pdf.
Carleton, Arts at. “Carleton Arts Calendar – Carleton College.” Carleton, December 10, 2021. https://www.carleton.edu/arts/events/arts-calendar/.
9 thoughts on “Networking the Arts – Project Update”
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I like your project idea of researching and visualizing arts events held at the Weitz Center for Creativity at Carleton College. I like your idea of leveraging ArcGIS, Timeline JS, and Flourish. They seem like good visualization tools to get your message across. I agree with you that you may have to sacrifice the quantity of your data because you are doing it manually.
This seems like a super cool project. I had never really considered using ArcGIS as a tool to create visualizations of small spaces such as a single building, but it seems like a really interesting way to map out all of the activities going on in the Weitz. I am really excited to see the final project, especially because I definitely am not as in tune with the cool activities going on around campus and so I am curious to know what sorts of things I might be missing out on.
I really like the different ideas you have for visualizing the data. It sounds like there will be a variety of visualizations that represent different information relating to the Weitz. I especially think the ArcGIS map of the Weitz will be interesting to see, along with the timeline of past events.
This sounds like it is going to be a really cool project! I think using arcGIS with the different floor plan layers of the Weitz is a really great idea and I am excited to see your final map with those layers. I also think adding a timeline will be really interesting to see how the events change over the years.
This seems like a great project idea and I love how there are many people involved in making this project happen. Although there are many obstacles that may come your way, the end results will definitely be rewarding. Keep up the great work and can’t wait to see the end results.
I completely get your frustration/sadness that the final project may not be exactly like you had expected it to be. I admire your resiliency and agree that Austin and Will would be good sources of support should you need to pivot your project methods slightly. I’m really excited to see how this project turns out! I have performed in and attended a few events at the Weitz so it will be cool to potentially see some of those reflected in your project.
Most of the scenarios we have encountered using interactive maps are within the scope of larger outdoor places, such as a school and a park. Your idea of using ArcGIS to map the relative positions inside a building is novel and feasible. I think the display method you chose is very suitable, for example, using timeline to mark various art activities on campus. I can see your thoughts and attempts from your posts, great work, and I look forward to seeing your visualization progress.
I think that it is super interesting how your map base is the Weitz itself! It is also a really smart idea to import the building’s floor plans into ArcGIS to do so. Additionally, my group and I also had to manually filter through raw data since we don’t have datasets so I know how time consuming and even frustrating it can be. Even with a few setbacks you all are doing a nice job!
It was really smart of you to download the floor plans of the Weitz to add them to your map! I think that will allow you to be a lot more precise. As for the timeline, I’m wondering if you’ve run into any problems with conflicting dates, because I’ve noticed that when working in the archives before, sometimes different documents cite the same event as occurring at different times. (Though this will probably be less of an issue with modern data.)