One of the common problems of being an API client/user is figuring out which routes an API provides or what data is available. For instance, what can I do with this specific API to build artwork? Documentation might helps, but it often lacks visual context.
In recent years, some cultural institutions have begun exploring and developing APIs for their museum collections. Last year, new or relaunched APIs have been produced by Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Copper Hewitt Museum in New York…etc. This idea might not be completely new, but I thought it would be really interesting if an data viz piece is created based on a museum API for a collection of certain artists, name mentioned or searched in certain period of time, collection items matching terms such as “photography,” or works from a particular date range…etc.
Obviously, this is not a one-man work or maybe not one-team project. I believe in cultivating artistic innovation and developing (local/ITP) community, because it bring people together to collaborate on technical projects or to vet data. The primary value of such projects lies in rich idea fabrication and networking not usually possible in a (previous) normal work environment. However, I do think such ideas and projects can produce working prototypes, frameworks, and often result in new working relationships. In addition, they boost domain and technical knowledge of a problem space, and give a community a shared language to address the problem in the future. Last but not least, placing each topic for investigation in context also provides musuem-goer/audience with the information/inspiration necessary to hone the focus of their own projects.