I haven’t felt this dumb since 8th gr Algebra
Well, I’ve been laboring over this project for the past couple of weeks. After a series of frustrations that led to a minor emotional breakdown, I’ve abandoned all hopes of text mining. I spent a lot of time over the weekend trying to OCR pdf files without paying money. FYI: free-ocr.com STINKS. After failing in all attempts, I decided to limit my text-mining to primary documents. After transcribing a seventeenth-century biography of Caravaggio into Word (the WHOLE THING, thank God Caravaggio died young), I attempted to insert it into Wordle and discovered that Wordle doesn’t function on my computer. I tried to update my coffee-cup logo thing and that didn’t work, then I adjusted my firewall settings (which I was lucky to figure out) and that didn’t work. I’m going to chalk the problem up to my slow internet connection and my circa-2004 computer. So, I say: to hell with it.
I refuse to abandon my swashbuckling friend Caravaggio. Now, I’ve decided to try to interpret his artwork digitally. I guess I’m planning on doing some sort of image mining with his oeuvre. The problem is, his oeuvre is very small compared to other artists. And I also haven’t figured out how to make one of those nifty zoomable pictures we looked at last week.
I plan on comparing his artwork with the events of his life (it’s very exciting) and the different patrons he had. This will involve a map with fun things attached to it. Ideally, I would be able to scroll over a location and see a pop-up of the works created there, the dates he lived there, the patrons he served, and the number of times he got arrested. But, again, I’m an idiot and don’t know how to make one.
So, here I am dejected, depressed, and feeling really, really stupid. I’m sure it will only take a couple more psychotic episodes and I’ll be finished with this assignment.
You could always send the document to another computer and make a Wordle there. It would be interesting to see it visualized that way.
Have you looked at Google Chart to see if you can make your second idea using that API? Maybe KML files?
I feel your frustration. The prep work for the quantitative data sometimes amounts to a whole bunch of work that leads to zip.
I agree with Rosendo that maybe you don’t have to abandon your Wordle project. I’ve never used a private file (from a flash drive, for example) on a public computer at GMU, but perhaps you can use a library machine?
As for geocoding Caravaggio’s work, if you can manage to get a street address for the various locations (even approximate), you might be able to use the program I managed to figure out (and I am a rank amateur too). It’s called batchgeo: http://www.batchgeo.com/.
Like 8th grade algebra, this too will end.
I agree, I’d play with it and see if another computer can handle Wordle. I feel your frustration, too. I’ve been trying to figure out how to map a lot of data without having to muddle my way through using some ridiculous complicated technical thing or a Google Maps API. (So thanks Laura for the point in another direction with batchgeo..) We’re all in this together!
I hear ya! This is rather frustrating and seemingly pointless given that there is not a whole lot of data readily available out there. But, alas, something will fall into place. I think you should give the Wordle thing another try. What about Many Eyes? Can’t say that I have tried to use it, but it might work for you. What about copy-pasting text from pdf files from JSTOR?
Good luck. Hope I am not adding to your pain!
Sorry for your pain. What about exploring the use of color reduction on the paintings (i.e., where the painting is reduced to the average tone) and look at change over time or compare his work with other works from the same time?