Galaxies of Us: Exploring Data In Star Wars Fan Communities
In the Exhibition
Description
Everybody is a fan of something. Sports, movies, and other implements of pop culture have been capturing the hearts of fans for decades and changing how we interact with each other through the development of fan communities. Also known as “fandom”, fan communities offer a place for fans of popular culture to meet each other, discuss, and theorize. You may even be in a fan community and not know it; if you’re a member of a Facebook group or follower of a fanpage, you are participating in fandom culture.
With the shift into the digital age of interaction, so too has the scope of fandom shifted, providing a new platform through social media sites for fans to participate in fandom on. Star Wars has long been considered to have the worst community of fans, one particularly exclusionary online subgroup earning itself the nickname “the fandom menace”. Since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm (the production company that produces Star Wars media) in 2012, Star Wars's most recent installment of films and television shows has endured unprecedented levels of backlash stemming from this subset of fans and has brought into question how the relationship between an entertainment producer and its fanbase can impact or even bring creative endeavors to a halt. The Star Wars fanbase is alive and well, existing on social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, and YouTube garnering new fans and revitalizing old ones.
Galaxies of Us is a multimodal data visualization installation that extends investigative work completed throughout the academic school year of 2024 to 2025, culminating in a 60+ page thesis detailing my findings. Fragmented into two parts, the first is a static displaying five different investigations of real survey data that can be viewed at this link. Below are the images in the installation followed by a description of each visualization:
Description
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Each shape represents one respondent and the age bracket they identified themselves as:
Blue: 18 - 26
Green: 26 - 32
Purple: 33 - 38
Orange: 39 - 44
Red: 45 - 50
Yellow: 51 - 56
Pink: 57+
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When asked if Disney had a negative experience within the Star Wars fandom, respondents whose responses said yes along with keywords associated with online harassment are counted and added to a variable that decreases the clarity of the overall image. The more keywords are detected, the less clear the image becomes.
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Each shape is the representation of the length of the respondent’s word count across the survey correlated with the general sentiment of their responses:
Blue: overall positive
Orange: overall mixed
Red: overall negative
Pink: inconclusive
The larger the shape is, the more words the response has.
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Respondents were asked if Disney was a company that supports their creative talent (directors, writers, and actors). In analyzing their responses, negative responses and other mentions of harassment (misogyny, homophobia, etc.) add to the variable that affects the red channel, overall increasing the amount of red displayed by the code.
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Respondents were asked if Disney was a company that supports women. When their responses were analyzed, mentions of profit and other forms of exploitation increase the variable that affects the green channel, increasing the amount of green the code generated.
The second part of the installation is the interactive survey guests could participate in, located on the television at the top of this page. Placards were placed around the installation with the same descriptions to detail what is envisioned. The raw data the static visualizations were placed in front of it so guests were able to view it if they wished. Aesthetically, the visualizations are blurred to emulate the distillation of ourselves as we are condensed into singular datapoints and features of our individual experiences are tapered off. What do we become? How are we seen as a part of ourselves and not as a whole?
Galaxies of Us encourages its viewers to look deeper into the art of data science and interact with the data as much as possible, seeing the stories of strangers as well as their own in the glowing black mirror of the television.
Timeline
Fall Quarter 2024 (COMM 196A Only)
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Define goals of study
Begin gathering sources
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Establish Fall Quarter work plan
Begin visualizing data presentation
Continue gathering sources
Annotate sources
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Draw concept map
List ideas and theories of interest
Continue gathering sources
Annotate sources
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Write and revise Introduction paragraph
Continue gathering sources
Annotate sources
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Finalize sources collected
Complete annotating sources
Submit Annotated Bibliography
Winter Quarter 2025
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COMM 196B
Establish work plan
Begin searching for more sources for Expanded Bibliography
VIS 160A
Begin conceptualizing data presentation
First Day Survey
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COMM 196B
Submit Expanded Bibliography
Begin writing survey questions
VIS 160A
Submit proposal
Establish timeline
Begin working on proposal presentation
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COMM 196B
Refine conceptual framework
Begin Related Literature Review
VIS 160A
Present Preliminary Proposal
Complete timeline
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COMM 196B
First bout of data collection
Complete Data Collection Memo #1
Continue refining questions for survey
VIS 160A
Reconfigure website
Meet with advisor
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COMM 196B
Revise argument
Continue refining survey questions
VIS 160A
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COMM 199H
Wait for critique on Thesis Draft
Schedule meeting with Faculty Advisor
VIS 160B
Compile data from surveys
Clean data
Import data into p5js sketch
Create base template with imported data and begin coding visualizations
Complete-
Tech Rider
Initial Presentation
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COMM 199H
Meet with Faculty Advisor
Begin revising
VIS 160B
Present Initial Presentation
Implement peer feedback
Complete Visualizations #1 and #2
Begin work on Visualization #3
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COMM 199H
Leave for Japan
Conduct Star Wars Celebration Japan survey
Conduct select interviews
Continue revising
VIS 160B
Continue coding visualizations
Finish up Visualization #3
Complete coding Visualizations #4 and #5
Begin coding Visualization #6
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COMM 199H
Complete conceptual framework
Meet with Faculty Advisor
Add data from Star Wars Celebration Japan Survey
Continue conducting interviews
Continue revising
VIS 160B
Complete coding Visualization #6
Begin work on Visualizations #7 and #8
Complete Midterm Presentation
Begin creating Interactive Survey
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COMM 199H
Complete rough draft for peer review session
Receive peer feedback and implement revisions
VIS 160B
Present Midterm Presentation
Demonstrate working visualizations
Field and implement peer feedback
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Research methods
Survey
Interview
Political economy
Digital ethnography
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Refine goals
Establish research relationships
Finalize methods
Begin drafting proposal
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Draft methods justification
Finalize conceptual framework
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Begin drafting Proposal Presentation
Peer review current Proposal draft
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Final Proposal Presentation
Receive critiques and field questions from colleagues
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Revise Proposal based on feedback from Presentation
Submit final proposal
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COMM 196B
Establish outline
Revise title
Release social media survey
VIS 160A
Continue receiving feedback on midterm presentations
Visualize with data from social media survey
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COMM 196B
Data Memo #2
Incorporate survey findings into memo
VIS 160A
Three relevant works
Brainstorm with colleagues
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COMM 196B
Refine title
Draft Introduction
VIS 160A
Complete Final Project Presentation
Meet with Faculty Advisor
Begin drafting Final Paper
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COMM 196B
Complete Draft Presentation
Begin revising
VIS 160A
Present Final Project Presentation
Field and implement peer critique
Continue working on Final Paper
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COMM 196B
Present Draft Presentation
Continue revising
VIS 160A
Attend peer Final Presentations
Continue working on Final Paper
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COMM 196B
Submit Draft of Thesis
VIS 160A
Complete and submit Final Paper
Spring Quarter 2025
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COMM 199H
Continue revising
Meet with Faculty Advisor
VIS 160B
Continue attending peer Midterm Presentations
Begin sourcing printed poster boards
Refine Interactive Audience Survey
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COMM 199H
Make final revisions
Send to peer review one last time
VIS 160B
Finalize Interactive Audience Survey
Source television and test reflection properties of iPad
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COMM 199H
Submit completed Thesis to Faculty Advisor for revision
VIS 160B
Compile Participant Response Book
Complete project website
Complete Final Presentation
Meet with Faculty Advisor
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COMM 199H
Implement final revisions from Faculty Advisor
VIS 160B
Present Final Presentation
Field peer review and critiques
Finishing touches on visualizations and Interactive Audience Survey
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COMM 199H
Submit Thesis to Program Director
VIS 160B
Submit Final Project documentation
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COMM 199H
Attend Honors Graduation Ceremony and Presentation
Graduate
VIS 160B
Install work in Kamil Gallery
Graduate
In Progress
Description (Slides 3 - 10)
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Preliminary Data Exploration: testing out JavaScript CSV reading capabilities, each figure represents a respondent (75 total).
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Experimenting with clustering; figures are clustered according to age bracket.
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Figures are clustered according to media interactivity level.
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Term frequency exploration; color and "pivot points" of Perlin noise are determined by the number of keywords identified in responses. This iteration is based upon respondents who had a negative experience in online fandom.
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Further term frequency exploration; color and "pivot points" of Perlin noise are determined by the number of keywords identified in responses with color being mainly driven by keywords.
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Clustering based on response. Respondents were given 3 options and this figure displays clustered responses.
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Using natural language processing and counters, this visualization evaluates the average sentiment response of each respondent and displays it according to its color value.
For more information or additional inquiries, please contact:
haydenkirkeide@gmail.com