Data Illumination
The Twitter Gospels project was created as a contemporary response to the concept of illuminated manuscripts in the context of a digitally connected community. Created during the exhibition of the Lindisfarne Gospels, the project explores and examines ideas of meaning, legibility and aesthetics by creating a contemporary digitally illuminated version of a biblical text informed by online, community engagement.
Twitter data was captured over the course of a day to gather contemporary responses and thoughts about each gospel text, in the form of tweets in which users have commented on shared individual texts or verses. The gathered data represents online enagement with each text across twenty-four hour period.
Tweets connected to each verse were translated into a computationally generated ‘illumination’ of the words, which visually combines the biblical text with tweeted responses and comments. The result is a unique, data visualisation of the text, illuminated by online activity.
Illuminated letters
The initial letter of each chapter is ‘illuminated’ by individual twitter data - comments, as online users post their thoughts and responses to each verse.
The words of each individual tweet are drawn as a single line, radiating from the centre which draws a part of the shape of the initial. Details, such as the time the tweet was posted and the users profile picture, are used to generate other visual elements.
The angle of each line represents the time of the tweet - so that the circle forms a clock face of the hours in the day. The colour of each line taken from the users online profile image.
The resultant design of each initial letter echoes the geometric 'carpet page' design from the original manuscript, and can either be read as single infographic or as a collection of individual, personal tweets about the chapter.
Visualising the Verses
As well as the initial letter, the full of each verse is also rendered according to the twitter data. The size and legibility of the verse text is defined by the amount of tweets each verse has received. Verses which are shared widely are large and well rendered. Verses with less engagement become more abstracted as less legible.
The result is that each page graphically highlights differing levels of online engagement with each chapter and verse and which, when collected together, reveal hidden patterns and visual rhythms from within the text.
The finished printed volume forms a visual documentation of contemporary responses to each of the Gospels; a visual snapshot from a specific day, revealing a graphical visualisation of the online social engagement with the Gospel text.
