Tuesday, September 1, 2009

base26: Word mapping

http://toxi.co.uk/p5/base26/

base26 is a small java project that maps 4-letter words in 4 dimensions (time, x, y and z.)

More importantly, it maps data in an unexpected way that produces connections between otherwise unrelated words. Words that use the same letters, or letters alphabetically close to each other become clustered in space. A wireframe surface surrounds each cluster and points out the relationship.

While base26 strips the words of their regular meaning and indexes them based on the order of the alphabet alone, interesting relationships are found if the original meanings are considered. For instance the words ICON and IDOL are grouped very closely together. While the two words' meanings relate, the spellings are different due to each word's etymology.

These sorts of relationships are what make mapping words this way interesting.

On another note, this seems very related to our first project.

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