arcs.fm - A Backdrop Visualization for Music Talk

Visualizations usually completely capture our attention or disappear into the ambient background. In this paper we explore a middle ground, with visualizations that are not constantly in the center of attention and support a main conversational task without distracting from it. Such backdrop visualizations work for look-up and analytical tasks without getting in the way of the conversation, but can also be used actively. To illustrate this concept we describe arcs.fm, a case study for music talk, as an exemplary backdrop visualization. Music fulfills an important function for identity construction: we define ourselves by what music we listen to and we like to compare our musical taste with friends and family. The shift towards digital music allows us to meticulously keep track of all songs we have listened to and to have access to this data to augment our memories. Here we explore integrating visualizations of automatically collected listening histories with the explanations and discussion that develop in personal music talk. arcs.fm is a visualization system that supports this music talk by comparing two listening histories visually. arcs.fm stays in the background while enabling look-up and enriching peoples’ conversation when needed.