RIPE OR ROT: THE ART OF MEDIOCRACY
This project marries art and science to create an intuitive, data-driven visualization of cinematic trends. By representing the median critic score of each year through a ripening (or unripening) tomato, the work transforms statistical patterns into a universally accessible metaphor.
A mature, ripe tomato signifies periods of critically acclaimed success, while immaturity reflects stagnation or decline in film quality. This interdisciplinary approach bridges quantitative analysis with artistic intuition, in an attempt to illustrate a compelling narrative of cinema to those of all ages and backgrounds by appealing to their intuitive understanding of a tomato.
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Critics’ Tomato Patch
Phased Trajectory of ROtten
The median score of critic ratings were taken for all movies rated ROTTEN and visualized with a yellow-green gradient palette.
The gradient values chosen were automatically assigned to the range (40.00 - 72.50) to best visualize changes in critic scoring
Phased Trajectory of Fresh
The median score of critic ratings were taken for all movies rated FRESH and visualized with a red-gold gradient palette.
The gradient values chosen were automatically assigned to the range (62.50 - 100.00) to best visualize changes in critic scoring
Phased Trajectory of Certified FREsh
The median score of critic ratings were taken for all movies rated CERTIFIED FRESH and visualized with a red-gold gradient palette.
The gradient values chosen were automatically assigned to the range (75.00 - 100.00) to best visualize changes in critic scoring
Details
InSIGHTS - Critics
The trajectory measured was the years of 1920 - 2020
The Tomatoes were designed to marry the concepts of ‘likeability of Tomato’ and ‘likeability of Movie’, where the visual appeal of the tomato illustrated the appeal of movies. Due to this, consistencies were sacrificed as a means to better exemplify the illustration.
*An example being: similar colors of different graphs are assigned different values”
Illustrating the changes in overall critic appeal towards movies throughout the past century reveals an interesting phenomenon
The critical evaluations of films have exhibited a noticeable decline, punctuated by periodic decreases in ratings, which is then followed by prolonged periods of stagnation. These abrupt downturns suggest overarching structural changes within the film industry. The subsequent stagnation indicates a drought of innovation, revealing how the industry's culture is shifting away from critical acclaim and rather towards contempt.
Contempt understood as the satisfactory recognition of being ‘good enough’.
Audiences’ Tomato Patch
Phased Trajectory of Fresh
The median score of audience ratings were taken for all movies rated FRESH and visualized with a red-gold gradient palette.
The gradient values chosen were automatically assigned to the range (54.50 - 90,00)to best visualize changes in critic scoring
Phased Trajectory of Certified FREsh
The median score of audience ratings were taken for all movies rated CERTIFIED FRESH and visualized with a red-gold gradient palette.
The gradient values chosen were automatically assigned to the range (71.00 - 95.00) to best visualize changes in critic scoring
Phased Trajectory of ROtten
The median score of audience ratings were taken for all movies rated ROTTEN and visualized with a yellow-green gradient palette.
The gradient values chosen were automatically assigned to the range (21.00 - 71.00) to best visualize changes in critic scoring
InSIGHTS - Audience
Illustrating the changes in overall audience appeal towards movies throughout the past century reveals two interesting phenomenon’s
The critical evaluations of films have exhibited an overall slightly declining trend, yet the the trajectory is marked by oscillation, where subsequent years experience fluctuations in median ratings rather than a steady, linear decline. Some years see temporary improvements, where scores rise, only to dip falling such years. Some years experience a sharper decline, reflecting a volatile reception. This pattern suggest that audience sentiment is not uniformly deteriorating, but rather responding to subtle changes in film quality.
The median score of movies rated Fresh have been stagnant, in comparison to all other tomatoes (including Crtics’). This illustrates that audience members throughout the years share the same reception of understanding regarding movies that are lukewarm.
InSIGHTS - Comparison
Comparing the critics’ tomato illustration to the respective audience tomato debunks some initial assumptions
Aggregated value ranges from illustrations:
Critic Audience
Certified Fresh 75.0 - 100.0 71.0 - 96.0
Fresh 62.5 - 100.0 54.5 - 90.0
Rotten 40.0 - 72.5 21.0 - 71.0
Finding: Critics, despite their profession actually tend to rate movies higher than audience members.
This disproves the assumption that critics would give harsher ratings for movies, The following below were the reasoning behind the assumption.
Audience members are more likely to read reviews and/or watch trailers to the movie being screened, and if it lacks appeal, they wouldn’t waste their money and time to go see it. Thus one expects audience scores to be inflated.
Audience members do not pay as much attention to the movie’s contingencies such as: lighting, camera movement, VFX, SFX, and etc. Thus one expects them to rate movies higher as they have less attributes to be critical of.
Critics would be more critical as it is in their professional interest to give critique and criticisms. I.E, they watch movies with the intent to criticize, not leisure pleasure.
Potential Reasons Behind the Finding
After watching the movie, audience members who expected more from it (whether it be due to critic ratings, trailer exposure, etc) may feel underwhelmed thus rate it more critically.
Critics often watch pre-release screenings for free In comparison, audience members have to pay for the experience, thus if a film fails to justify the cost of its admission ticket, people may criticize it more severely.
Critic follow an industry standard while audiences react for emotional entertainment, thus high quality lighting, camera movements, cinematography may not be recognized by audience members and taken into account when rating movies.
Online review bombing from fandoms, social media campaigns, and trolls could skew audience ratings.
It takes time for the entertainment industry to catch up with the newest demands from audience members.