The sound of gender and race in film

An odd concept perhaps, but this data visualisation is a great way to make the point that diversity needs to be fought for. The ugly sound of the way the data plays mirrors the ugly truth, white males and their stories dominate mainstream films, theatre and culture to the exclusion of almost everyone else.
And why is that wrong? Look around you …
When we talk of diversity, we mean normalising the presentation of our society and culture. If we don’t reflect reality, then what are we reflecting? Who does that privilege, and especially, whom does it ignore?

Time to Act for Change …

We can’t be a society which asks people to pay taxes, and then udues that money to guard access to the making of culture to prevent them being represented as part of that society.

This song was created using data on gender, race, and ethnicity of actors and actresses featured in the last decade of blockbuster movies. The goal of this song and visualization is to give an intuitive and visceral understanding of how different groups of people are represented (or underrepresented) in mainstream Hollywood movies.

Learn more about the process and data: datadrivendj.com/tracks/hollywood
An interactive view of the data: datadrivendj.com/interactives/hollywood

Data-Driven DJ (datadrivendj.com) by Brian Foo (brianfoo.com) is a series of music experiments that combine data, algorithms, and borrowed sounds.

Published by sanjitchudha

35 years' Marketing, PR and Comms expertise. My digital space. My views. No apologies.