Elizabeth Currid and Sarah Williams collaborated to create “The Geography of Buzz”, an interesting combination of geographical maps and statistical “heatmaps” showing the concentration of various gatherings (parties, premieres, broadway shows, etc). The resulting maps show not only the popular places to go, but an interesting view into the invisible connections between the events.
It was not a culturally comprehensive data set, the researchers admit, but a wide-ranging one. And because the photos were for sale, they had to be of events that people found inherently interesting, “a good proxy for ‘buzz-worthy’ social contexts,” they write. You had to be there, but where exactly was there? And why was it there?The answers were both obvious and not, a Möbius strip connecting infrastructure (Broadway shows need Broadway theaters, after all), media (photographers need to cover Broadway openings) and the bandwagon nature of popular culture.
‘The Geography of Buzz,’ a Study on the Urban Influence of Culture – NYTimes.com.
