Idea: Tag Cloud

One of the primary reasons I was interested in applying a blog to event of Manet’s Olympia was the incredible outpouring of words from its criticisms.  I thought this tag cloud would be fascinating as a means to see the perception/reception of her in 1865.  It is interesting to note some words that are frequently used, such as witch, ape/gorilla, monster, black, dirty, etc.  What does that tell us about how Paris Salon society viewed her and why so vehement?  When you see these words in a tag cloud (or like in Twidale’s great visualization tool shown last Tuesday) near to Olympia, it acts as a picture, logo, a concentration of meaning/representation for the object itself.  I thought it would be fascinating to see a tag cloud of critiques of Olympia from modern times and compare the absolutely dramatic shift of how she is perceived.