“Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.” -Mahatma Gandhi (Derr, October 16, 2020)

When viewing the data in Palladio, I initially thought of heads, arms, and hugs. To me, humans’ innate desire to get together, belong to something, and share what they know, think, and do with others (Allen et al., 2022) is the epitome of connectedness. As noted in our module, “users like us are, after all, also nodes in the network, and our interests, behaviours, and activities constantly change the network’s relations (ETEC 540 Week 9, 2023). Algorithms then take those weights to infer what your preferences are (ETEC 540 Week 9, 2023). We are the node. Our preferences represent the arms and edges that connect or link us together.

In line with this thinking, I first investigated whom I was most connected with. For this analysis, I looked at what songs I have more than one person connected with. While I am connected with others through the ten songs I chose, the figure below shows that The Fairie Round and Melancholy Blues were the only songs with more than one person connected with them.

As expected with music, choice and preference are very personal. Psychological studies have supported the idea that musical tastes are linked to our cognitive styles or how we think about and react to the world around us (Somvichian-Clausen, April 6, 2021). The data from our quiz supports this, as shown in the complexity of the figure below.

Not surprisingly, the song with the highest ranking was The Night Chant. Given the focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and truth and reconciliation surrounding the aftermath of Canada’s residential schools, I was surprised that all my peers did not choose this song. The song itself was a wise choice to be included on the Golden Record, as it is part of a Navajo healing ritual that can be performed to restore harmony and social and natural balance between the supplicant and the natural environment (Night Way, n.d.). While “aliens” may not understand the piece’s significance, its intent to connect humans and the environment highlights the thought behind the choice to connect those that may find the Golden Record with Earth.

Of additional interest to me was that four of the top five songs my classmates chose could be categorized as cultural, meaning they reflect the cultural diversity of Earth and how music can be a medium for connecting and finding relationships or ties between each other. I, too, chose these songs as part of my selection. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, while not a choice of mine owing to its more aggressive, almost combative tone, is one of Bach’s more widely known pieces and has frequently been used in films such as The American President (The American President, n.d.) and TV shows such as The Little Einsteins (Little Einsteins Wiki, n.d.).

What I particularly enjoyed about using Palladio was the visualization of the data and the ability to see the connections and follow the edges from one node to the next. Visualization allows us to display and communicate relationships between data that are easy to understand. As we have seen throughout the course, the ability to communicate and share information, from the earliest storytelling methods to our more modern use of infographics or even animation, improves our ability to connect, share, and learn from each other.

References:

Allen, K., Gray, D. L., Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (2022). The need to belong: A deep dive into the origins, implications, and future of a foundational construct. Educational Psychology Review, 34(2), 1133-1156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09633-6

Derr, A. (October 16, 2020). Social connection quotes: Our 33 favourite quotes. Visible Network Labs. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://visiblenetworklabs.com/2020/10/16/thirty-three-best-social-connection-quotes/

ETEC Week 9. (2023). A Network of Texts. Text technologies: The changing spaces of reading and writing. UBC. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/107180/pages/9-dot-1-what-is-the-web-and-what-is-not?module_item_id=5148855

Little Einsteins Wiki (n.d.) Brandenburg concerto number 5 in D major. Fandom. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://littleeinsteins.fandom.com/wiki/Brandenburg_Concerto_Number_5_in_D_Major

Night Way (n.d.). e-Hillerman: The Tony Hillerman portal. UNM University Libraries. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://ehillerman.unm.edu/node/1705#sthash.5oSJR8Gs.dpbs

Somvichian-Clausen, A. (April 6, 2021). Science now says you can judge people by their taste in music, after all. The Hill. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/546777-science-now-says-you-can-judge-people-by-their-taste/

The American President. (n.d.). IMDb. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112346/