ThE MET Ceramic 101

This is a 3-part series project in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. The full project focuses on the ceramic collections from the MET and takes on different perspectives of exploring the museum collection and different approaches to learn about ceramics.

The MET blog post: https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/collection-insights/2020/met-api-parsons-data-visualization

The MET Ceramics Lookbook

How fascinating grid could be?

Have you ever seen over 9k ceramics surface at the same time?

This is a web-based lookbook for the MET ceramics. Each grid is a close-up zoom in of the object’s surface, providing extreme details of each object. The lookbook is ordered and categorized by the type of clay (different in ingredient and fire temperature):

fritware, earthenware, stoneware, terracotta, porcelain, pottery, ceramic, and other.

Ceramic Beats

Have you ever had the kitchen band experience? Each “ting” from each piece of kitchen ceramics sounds different.

What about in a museum? I bet you never would never have the chance to strike a MET object, but here you can, virtually, enjoy the sound from the identical type of ceramic. For instance, how does a terracotta sound differently from a porcelain?

In the form of a drum pad, each row is a type of sound in 16 notes, and each column is a step. Cells selected form the sequence. Click on the play button to let the beats play.

Best experience on iPad.

Rings of Ceramics

Ceramics are made from clay, which comes from our earth. In different part of the world, the clay varies.

Ceramics can be fired at different temperature or unfired. Different cultures have their “secret recipes.”

In this visualization, each country has their unique ring of ceramics. In each ring, each color slice represents a different type of ceramics.