Draft 2 Update

a. Title

CFRP in Time (viewable here)

b. Goal

Our CFRP timeline aims to contextualize the perfomance data available via the CFRP API, and to present visual cues for the associated metadata.

c. Approach

We present different dimensions of the data through a variety of means. Firstly, performances are sorted chronologically by premiere date. This enables a viewer to see what time span is covered by the CFRP data, and the frequency of when new plays were being performed. The performances are further keyed by an image, representing the genre of the performance, and some metadata. The metadata includes, author, date, number of acts, and types of tickets sold. We also use color to represent the popularity of a play, if ticket sale data is available for the performance. A red background means 15,000+ tickets were sold for the performance over its lifetime, pink is 5,000 to 10,000 tickets, and a light pink is less than 5,000 tickets sold. Lastly, we integrated historical events in the timeline, to provide hints of how performance genres, ticket sale success, and frequency may have been affected by the current events of the time. This adds an additional layer to the raw metadata from the CFRP API.

d. Audience

This project is intended for anyone interested in the events in France in the 17th and 18th century, and in particular, the interplay between French performances of the time and historical events.

e. Obstacles

We struggled with some missing data, and were unable to get ticket sale numbers for a good number of the performances. Furthermore, we would have liked to include even more details about specific actors, and to have had more information about the content of the performances, to better tie them to specific events in French history. In a future iteration, we would love to separate out the French history timeline and the CFRP performance data into two side by side timelines, and allow a user to click an event in the French history timeline, or vice versa a specific performance, and to have the related performance/historical event highlighted in the corresponding timeline. This could help French history scholars better understand the art of the time, and art historians better appreciate the relevant historical events.