Modeling Narrative with Networks, Graphs, and Matrices

MDST 3559: DataestheticsProf. Alvarado04/05/2011

Business

• Problems with some comments being classified as spam

• Permissions for posting have been reset …• Final projects to be announced next Tuesday• Optional readings posted … see blog

Review

• Text vs. Image• Views of Rustam• Implicit structures

Text vs. Image

• The Images show that Zimmern’s translation is flawed

Views of Rustam

• Compassionate but badass Hero; Batman

• Somewhere between King and peasant

• “He needs God to be with him, so he doesn’t appear to be a religious figure.” (?)

• Fears nothing• Resourceful• Part human, part animal• Arrogant• Quick-witted

• Chivalric Hero• A Prince (?)• “he had not of his own

choice chosen this adventure”

• Bound by Destiny• Agency is might• His sword is badass, it

“cleaves / Not the armour of jousting knights, / But the skulls of dragons and Deevs.”

Rustam as Liminal Hero

SHAH

COUNCIL(Zal)

GENERAL(GEW)

RUSTAM

SON OF

AGENT OF

SUB FOR

Structure?

Rustam = PowerPuff GirlsKai Kaus = MayorZal = Father (kind of)King of M = Mojo JojoWhite Deev = One of MJ's minionsLions, etc. = Fuzzy Lumpkins?

Structure

Frodo = DorothyRing = SlippersSam = Tin Man, etc.Gandalf = Good WitchSauron = Bad WitchGollum = Toto -> mediator

Structure

http://oceansunfish.org/evolution.php

Structuralist “Prosopography”

Recurring patterns and structures imply cultural modelsPolitical Organization

KING / COUNCILLOR (PRIEST) / WARRIORNature of Power

Royal Power is fragile and dependentNow, How to Describe and Represent?

http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v7/n5/fig_tab/nrg1835_F3.html

Overview

• Discuss Ramsay, “In Praise of Pattern,” to explore ways of modeling and visualizing narrative

• Look at some other examples• Discuss graphable patterns in the Shahnameh,

in preparation for hands-on work Thursday

In Praise of Pattern

• Ramsay argues that, in addition to the quantitative theorems of graph theory, graphs make good visualizations

• They help you notice things, patterns• See version with images

http://studio1.shanti.virginia.edu/~rca2t/dataesthetics/04-05/ramsay-2005.html

Graph Theory

• The Geometry of Posistion (actually coined by Leibniz)

• Reduces things to “vertices” and “edges”– Or “nodes” and “links” (dots and lines)

• Theorems concern features such– number of nodes– number of edges– number of edges per node– “degrees” of separation between nodes, etc.

Euler’s Solution to the Seven Bridges Problem

3

3

3

5

Vizualized in this way, the problem becomes one of drawing the picture without retracing any line and without picking up the pencil.

It becomes clear that nodes with with odd numbered links are a problem – if you come back to it, and aren’t finished, you are stuck …

http://mathforum.org/isaac/problems/bridges2.html

Shaded Similarity Matrices

“You take a set of data measurements for a set of classes and use it to create another table that expresses degrees of proximity among those measurements. . .

“You then reorganize those values so that “more similar” values are adjacent to one another, assign each value a color, and arrange them in a grid.”

Ramsay’s Application

• Correlate graph properties with genre for plays– 5 properties: Distinct, Total, Singles, Loops, and Switches– 4 genres: Romance, Tragedy, History, and Comedy– “Low-level” vs. “high-level” properties

• Method– X and Y axes both show plays, colored by genre– Each cell in the matrix is shaded according to similarity

in terms of low-level properties– Low-level properties are added successively and the

order of plays is changed to find clustering

PROTOVIS

“Adjacency matrix” of characters in Les Misérables

http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ex/matrix.html

The Charrette Project

A database of manuscripts, the critical edition, and poetic and grammatical data associated with Chrétien de Troyes's Le Chevalier de la Charrette (Lancelot, ca. 1180)

Home page:http://www.princeton.edu/~lancelot/ss/index.shtmlInteractive database:http://gravitas.princeton.edu/charrette/figura/index.php

http://studio1.shanti.virginia.edu/~rca2t/dataesthetics/CASES/Charrette/hg/

Data Models

http://studio1.shanti.virginia.edu/~rca2t/dataesthetics/04-05/example-01.php

Patterns in the Shahnameh

• Characteristic events (event types) and sequences– E.g. drinking wine

• Implied social networks• Next week, we will look at these patterns and

explore tools to visualize them