TextArc

[TextArc.org] A TextArc is a visual representation of a text—the entire text (twice!) on a single page. A funny combination of an index, concordance, and summary; it uses the viewer's eye to help uncover meaning. Here are more detailed overviews of the interactive work and the prints.
TextArc is a tool designed to help people discover patterns and concepts in any text by leveraging a powerful, underused resource: human visual processing.
TextArc exposes the nature and style of a document's content, not by algorithmic winnowing but by arranging and showing every word. It taps into our pre-attentive ability to scan for brighter (here, more frequent) words, compare them, and let the eye read those words in a balancing act between them . The eye and mind scan for ideas, then follow the ideas down to where and how they appear in the text.

by Paul | 26 October 2004 |  Discuss [0]