The data for this interactive timeline was amassed from collecting all the printed and digital media considered to form the canon (comics, graphic novels, television episodes, the film, and novels), that could be read and watched to allow a given user to acquire more understandings about Firefly and Serenity.
Project
The Firefly and Serenity Experimental Timeline
JavaScript · UI · UX · Poster · Information Design
Design Problem
Create an interactive visual timeline of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity stories.
Research Questions
What is the best way to create an interactive visual timeline of a dataset? fireflytimeline.web.illinois.edu
Outcomes
This project became an online timeline and was written about in a peer-reviewed article entitled “Collaborating in Conceptual Spaces: How Data Visualization Facilitated by Javascript Can Improve Interdisciplinary Design Projects” (December 2022). It was also presented at the Slayage 9 Conference (July 2022) in a presentation entitled “The Firefly and Serenity Experimental Timeline: A Digital Tool to Catalog, Connect, and Discover”.
Credits
Designer: Eric Benson
Developer: Dr. Juan Salamanca, PhD
Connected Writing
“The Serenity Logo: Otherness and Inauthenticity.” (2022).
“Over-consumption, the natural environment, and Earth that was," in Serenity: Essays on Joss Whedon’s ‘Big Damn Movie,’ ed. Frederick Blichert. (2018).
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