What is Vera?
Vera is a tool for text visualization that transforms language into shapes. Data visualization can help to better understand the complexity of different writing styles, since style is something that can’t be measured. Vera is the result of a research concerning the changes in communication in today’s society, the storing of huge amounts of information online, language, digital reading and literary analysis.
Vera is a tool for text visualization that transforms language into shapes. Data visualization can help to better understand the complexity of different writing styles, since style is something that can’t be measured. Vera is the result of a research concerning the changes in communication in today’s society, the storing of huge amounts of information online, language, digital reading and literary analysis.
How was the design process?
From the beginning my aim was to present the style of the text in a simple form, without obscuring the results, since the subject in itself is rather complicated. To do this I used the elements from the graphic world (shape, colour, size, position…) and assigned them previously defined variables to analyze the texts. In this way, once the code is learned, it is possible to read easily the data transmitted by the visualization.
From the beginning my aim was to present the style of the text in a simple form, without obscuring the results, since the subject in itself is rather complicated. To do this I used the elements from the graphic world (shape, colour, size, position…) and assigned them previously defined variables to analyze the texts. In this way, once the code is learned, it is possible to read easily the data transmitted by the visualization.
Three levels of representation were established: one general, that shows the whole novel with its poetic component; the second level that is more analytical is meant to see the sequence of the ordered phrases and the text of each of them, and the third level that shows only one phrase and its components. This division is very useful since it helps to understand the processes that occur in every case: see, sort and read.
How are the visualizations made?
For the analysis I used Wordnet, an English word database developed by the University of Princeton, and the external library RiTa for the programming environment Processing. Both are free tools that permit to work with texts and create its visual representation. The way to represent the texts is based on the material found in the consulted linguistic studies.
What is interesting about them?
The visualization creates a new type of reading experience and gives you a chance to interact with text in a different way. Users can move freely within the text, analyse it and draw conclusions that might be left unnoticed during the reading. Vera enables you to see the whole novel in a new way, select abstracts that you want to read and compare the results with other texts.
The visualization creates a new type of reading experience and gives you a chance to interact with text in a different way. Users can move freely within the text, analyse it and draw conclusions that might be left unnoticed during the reading. Vera enables you to see the whole novel in a new way, select abstracts that you want to read and compare the results with other texts.
