The Thread of Artistic Thought

An interactive genealogy of Western artistic and philosophical thought, ~1750 to now. Two synchronized views over the same data model:

• Timeline (Gantt) — art movements and philosophical currents as two parallel staves on one time axis, under a "where meaning lives" ribbon (World → Self → Medium → Idea → Network) that names the through-line.
• Rhizome — the counter-view: the same nodes as a force-directed network with no spine, clustered into constellations by era/tradition (toggle grouping off for the pure hairball). Edges show descent, cross-time leaps, idea lineage, and art↔idea resonance.

Click any bar or node for its inheritance, revolt, ideas, and Wikipedia-linked figures.

Run

npm install
npm run dev      # dev server
npm run build    # type-check + production build to dist/
npm run preview  # serve the built bundle

Where things live

src/
  data/          # the content — extracted, typed, and the ONE place to edit facts
    eras.ts          art eras (upper stave groups)
    movements.ts     the 29 art movements
    philosophy.ts    the 5 traditions + 16 currents (lower stave)
    locus.ts         the "where meaning lives" ribbon segments
    edges.ts         the rhizome influence web (spine + leaps) + generated resonances
  lib/
    layout.ts        Gantt time→pixel math + lane row-packing
    forceSim.ts      pure force-directed layout engine (no DOM)
    nodes.ts         unified art+idea graph model
    wiki.tsx         Wikipedia link helpers + figure parsing
    wikiTitles.ts    label → Wikipedia article overrides
  components/
    ViewTabs, Filters, Gridlines, LocusRibbon,
    GanttView, RhizomeView, Drawer
  App.tsx          view + filter + selection state
  types.ts         the shared data model

To add a movement, edit src/data/movements.ts; to add a philosophical current, src/data/philosophy.ts; to add an influence edge, src/data/edges.ts. Everything else derives from those.