Data Portrait
Description
For this project we needed to create a translation device in p5 that translates external JSON datasets into feminist data.
Design Process
My translation device uses data from NYC OpenData. The API I used documents all of the shoot permits approved by the city for photo, film, television, and web shoots in all five boroughs. My thinking was to use this data to highlight an inherent bias and how limited New York City is perceived across all media. To see the difference in the number of shoot permits, a user can select a borough on the drop down box where the boroughs are arranged in alphabetical order. Once selected, orange dots appear to represent each shoot permit. Just as I suspected, Manhattan has the most number of permits with 435. Brooklyn comes in second with 341. Queens in third with 167. The Bronx in fourth with 57. Staten Island is last with 0. Within each borough there is a wide variety of interesting demographics which show that New York is seen through a very specific lens, pun kind of intended. For the colors, I picked the official colors of the City of New York's flag.
Reflection
I had a lot of trouble making this and I may have considered just not turning something in on multiple occassions, but after getting a lot of help it finally started to take shape. Two things that I think would be interesting to add to this would be getting a bit more specific within each borough. For example, Manhattan has the most shoot permits but I'd like to see where these requests are as far as neighborhoods go. Based on a cursory review, most of the shoots I saw were being taken in pockets of the city that aren't super diverse when it comes to race, income, etc. Another thing that would be interesting, for the shoots in areas like Queens or The Bronx, is seeing if these shoots are purposely shot in "less desirable" boroughs because that is where a television show or movie is set or if they're just taking advantage of lower costs. NOTE: I think it's because of the scale of the API, but it does take a couple of tries to get it going. If nothing shows up, just give the link a refresh.