The first thought I had when seeing the rendering of the images produced using Palladio, was that of network-meta-analysis(NMA) used in healthcare. NMAs are used to indirectly compare treatments against each other, when there is a lack of direct evidence (Dias, 2019). In our case the type of data is different, and so its analysis. For the Golden record curation data, we are trying to analyse the connections between classmates and music choices.
I started by looking at the connection for the group I was placed in, I had 60% similar choices with Peter, and 40% similar choices with Erin and Ravneet. The question is then why are the choices similar? I started by trying to learn more about Peter, to see if there was a reason for the similarity in choices. I learned that Peter is a Dad to a 17 year old boy, and that he likes to play curling. This still didn’t give me a reason as to why our choices were so similar. Then I read his criteria for his selection, and to my surprise his selection was a random selection. This was very interesting to me. I then looked into Erin’s and Ravneet’s criteria to see if I could find a relationship between the similarity in our choices. For Ravneet, her criteria was to select pieces that evoke strong emotions, as well as including a variety of music from different parts of the world. For Erin, her criteria was to include an array of representation from across the world, but being true to her opinion and her western centric bias. Both Ravneet’s and Erin’s approach were similar to mine. My criteria was to have a diversity of choice, but based on what I enjoyed.
The visualizations don’t capture the reasons behind the choices, as for the one I had the most connection with 60%, it was completely random, but for part of the choice only 40% similarities, there was some connection. What could be the political implications of the grouping, considering the data that is missing, assumed or misinterpreted? The connection would have to be the Western bias as Erin had mentioned. It would be interesting to see how the visualization and networks of data are different from students with different cultural backgrounds, and those who are currently in different world locations, not biased by western society.
It was also interesting to see the songs that were selected the most in the whole class: Percussion (Senegal) and Flowing Streams were not any of my choices, neither Peter’s random choices.
References
Dias S, Caldwell DMNetwork meta-analysis explained Archives of Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition 2019;104:F8-F12.
