Date: 2/12/09
Summary
The simple data I chose for my project was the gold metal winning results of the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the model I try and represent the 5 highest of gold Metal winning countries through both denotation and connotation of the data.
Motivation and Interaction
Denotation
There are primarily 2 ways I represent the denotation of the data in the model. First I show the number of gold metals above each flag of the country. Second way I show the data is the lengths of the flags poles Each pole is scaled by the number of gold metals they have won. The scaling is presented as the following:
| Country | Metals | Height |
| China | 51 | 5 |
| United States | 36 | 3.53 |
| Russia | 23 | 2.25 |
| United Kingdom | 19 | 1.86 |
| Germany | 16 | 1.57 |
Connotation
The Connotation is represented in the way people see the Olympics. For most Americans, the Olympics and ancient Greek culture have a strong relationship. So in order to tap into this, I themed the data in such a way to inspire an ancient Greek atmosphere. I did this by creating a structure that closely resembles Greek Architecture. It has Doric-esque columns and Cornice and Pediment to form the triangular areas on the roof. Though most Greek temples were made of stone, I felt the marble texture perpetuated the Ancient Greek Theme better than a stone one. In addition, another strong symbol associated with the Olympics is the Olympic Flame. I recreated this on top of the structure to further envelop the audience with the Ancient Greek Atmosphere. Finally, I recreated one of the most well known Olympic symbols, the Olympic Rings, to finish the model.
Model Video
The YouTube Video I created turned out really bad because the computer I am using lacks the resources to capture Secondlife events very well. So I found another way a video. Its a Video/SlideShow highlighting key features of the model. Here a link to the poor youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nsqk8DMas
