Initial observations
Please click on the interactive elements to view the screenshots of data visualization.
Specific analysis
Among the other 21 participants, Didy Huang and Garth von Buchholz had the most similar choices as me: seven same songs out of the ten pieces.
Didy Huang: Track 3, 6, 7, 9, 14, 18, 24.
Garth von Buchholz: Track 3, 7, 14, 18, 20, 23, 24.
Songs we all chose: Track 3, 7, 14, 18, 24.
On the other hand, Richard Payne had the most different choices than me. We only have one same song out of the ten pieces we selected: track 9.
I was curious about the rationale behind our choices, so I looked into their task 8 posts and summarized our criteria. I noticed that Richard’s selections of songs in task 8 were highly different from his choices in the dataset; therefore, I chose to compare Michaelle Haughian’s criteria instead since her list was the second most different from mine (we only had three same songs).
According to the comparison table, it is evident that I had more similar parameters as Didy and Garth than Michaelle, which explained at least part of the reason why we had similar or different choices.
Reflection
Reasons behind the similar responses
Similar parameters: As discussed above, the similar criteria we made in task 8 were one of the reasons why we chose many similar songs in our lists.
Cultural influences: People who grow up in the same geographical area may have similar music preferences because of early exposure to similar musical influences.
Emotional resonance: People may connect with music on an emotional level. If the genre, melody, rhythm, or lyrics resonate with their emotions and experiences, they may choose similar music. For example, Michaelle emphasized her “own emotional relations to the sounds” when choosing the pieces (Haughian, 2023).
Personal preference: Music choices are undoubtedly influenced by personal preferences due to personality, values, and other factors. For example, Laura mentioned in her post that she chose “songs familiar and upbeat” based on her bias (Orlowski, 2023).
Network visualization
One of the advantages of network visualization is that it can explicitly reveal patterns and clusters within data. Networks represent relationships and connections in a visually comprehensible manner, making it intuitional to analyze complex data. Also, Network visualization allows users to explore data interactively (zooming in/out, changing node positions, and filtering data), fostering a deeper understanding of the network.
However, in large and densely connected networks (like the one we have here), overlapping edges can hinder readability and create confusion. Also, network visualization tends to emphasize the structural aspects (connections, patterns, relationships, etc.) of a network, therefore overlooking other attributes (e.g., reasons behind the choices) that could be important for understanding the data. Regarding null choices, network visualization may not accurately represent the full scope of the dataset when null choices are not addressed, leading to incomplete or misleading conclusions. Even if creating a new data visualization with input data of “songs you didn’t choose,” the reasons behind these null choices cannot be shown explicitly.
References
Haughian, M. (2023, October 29). Task 8: Golden Record Curation | Text Technologies: The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing. https://blogs.ubc.ca/auntiesocial/2023/10/29/task-8-golden-record-curation/
Huang, D. (2023, October 25). Task 8: Golden Record Curation – Didy’s Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ddhng/2023/10/25/task-8-golden-record-curation/
Orlowski, L. (2023, October 29). Task 8: Golden Record Curation | ETEC 540 Blog by Laura Orlowski. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540lauraorlowski/2023/10/29/task-8-golden-record-curation/
Von Buchholz, G. (2023, October 28). Task 8: Golden Record curation assignment | ConText | Garth von Buchholz. https://blogs.ubc.ca/garthvb/2023/10/28/task-8-golden-record-curation-assignment/
Wang, B. (2023, October 18). Task 8: Golden Record curation – Bingying (Iris) Wang-ETEC540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540bingyingwang/2023/10/18/task-8-golden-record-curation/