{"id":3032,"date":"2015-04-30T13:42:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T17:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.prattsils.org\/?p=3032"},"modified":"2015-04-30T13:42:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T17:42:58","slug":"character-interactions-bbcs-sherlock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/visualization\/character-interactions-bbcs-sherlock\/","title":{"rendered":"Character Interactions – BBC’s Sherlock"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a huge\u00a0Sherlock Holmes fan, and one of my favorite TV shows is the BBC\u2019s Sherlock<\/em>, which re-imagines Sherlock Holmes in 21st<\/sup> century London. Naturally, I couldn\u2019t resist having an excuse to delve back into the show for this Gephi lab!<\/p>\n

The following network visualization depicts interactions between main\/recurring characters for season (or series, as it’s referred to in\u00a0the U.K.)\u00a01, season\u00a02, and season\u00a03 of Sherlock. <\/em>Each season has three 90-minute episodes. I filtered out the minor characters because I was only\u00a0interested in the “main” characters and their interactions. Thus, the visualization\u00a0will show interactions between protagonists, antagonists, and recurring secondary characters (some of which are not recurring, but play a significant role [e.g., the “baddie”] in\u00a0particular\u00a0episodes across all seasons).<\/p>\n

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My major issue when generating data for the\u00a0visualization was how, precisely, to qualify when characters\u2019 interactions stop and start. An example that requires some operationalization is if a scene begins in the morning, then cuts to\u00a0later in the day. If the\u00a0characters are still in the same room and\u00a0continue a conversation\u00a0concerning\u00a0the same subject as the conversation earlier in the day, is this\u00a0considered two interactions or one? Literature Geek suggests<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0interactions are “chunk[s] of communication such as a dialogue, a speech directed at one or more specific characters…’chunk’ means that we\u2019ll think of an interaction as ending…when communication ends, other events intervene….” I still had great difficulty trying to figure out a systematic way to generate data because the interactions were not clear-cut. In the end, I could only\u00a0use my own judgment.<\/p>\n

First, I tried watching (skim-watching, rather) season\u00a01–I must have recorded and re-recorded data a few times, but I wasn’t satisfied with the results. I eventually remembered coming across fanmade transcripts of the episodes and found them on LiveJournal (the transcripts I used are\u00a0courtesy of Ariane DeVere<\/a>). It was easier to digest\u00a0actions and dialogue in text rather than on screen.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0data I generated is certainly not\u00a0perfect but since I am quite\u00a0familiar with the show I can see that the\u00a0visualization accurately reflects the strength or weakness of interactions between characters.\u00a0I defined interactions as dialogue exchanged in person or electronically. In some\u00a0cases, I recorded nonverbal interaction. Most\u00a0interactions are\u00a0undirected, with the exception of\u00a0unanswered text messages or character A not hearing character B addressing him\/her.<\/p>\n

The viz layouts I used\u00a0was Fruchterman Reingold, then Expansion and Label Adjust so the nodes (characters) weren’t\u00a0overlapping. In order to see “relative connectedness” within the network,\u00a0I\u00a0placed\u00a0the node size (by degree) at a minimum of 10 and maximum of 50 which shows\u00a0who has the most, second-most, third-most, etc. connections\u00a0in the network–the larger the node, the more general relations the character has. The edges are either emboldened or thinly\u00a0weighted, which illustrates\u00a0greater\u00a0and lower amount\u00a0of interactions between two characters, respectively. Lastly, I partitioned the\u00a0nodes by\u00a0degree, and the colors relate to certain\u00a0numbers of relations.<\/p>\n

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If you are\u00a0interested in knowing which characters have similar presences in the show, looking to the colored degree\u00a0could be a way to determine this. For example, Mycroft Holmes and Molly Hooper are both neon green, and thus each have 6 connections.<\/p>\n

From the viz, a few observations can be made:<\/p>\n