MuzLink: Connected beeswarm timelines for visual analysis of musical adaptations and artist relationships

Abstract

The rise of open data in the cultural domain is democratizing access to complex datasets usually presented as large multivariate and multilayered graphs. However, the exploration of such datasets is challenging for laypersons. The objective of this work is to develop and evaluate a new method for exploring and understanding a specific type of multilayered graph that combines a large bipartite graph with a set of tree structures. This paper proposes MuzLink, an interactive visualization tool that allows the user to navigate, search, locate, and compare collaborative and influential relationships between musical artists through the exploration of musical adaptations. The proposed tool is based on a set of connected timelines visualizing how an artist’s collaborations, inspirations, and influences evolved over time. This design study is conducted in close collaboration with BAnQ, the national library and archives agency of the Quebec government. A controlled user study, done with a group of BAnQ users, and two case studies, show how the proposed approach is capable of performing a considerable set of analytical and exploratory tasks.

A visualization technique to assist in the comparison of large meteorological datasets

“…This is a visual tool that facilitates the perception relationships between visual elements. Other works have used this same visual tool like [38][39][40][41], but their application domain, objective, and visualization technique are different. Knipp et al [42] use connected timelines to visualize the effects on the technology of solar and geospace events and of solar and geomagnetic activities.…”

Explorative Visual Analysis of Rap Music

“…Another way to find and visualize relations between artists would be to observe the influence of the musicians of the past on currently active musicians. For example, MuzLink [25] allows for exploring collaborative and influential relationships between musical artists via connected timelines. Other work that observed this influence through graph visualizations show the history of rock [26] or try to find artists that are prototypical to a genre [27].…”