The Rhythm of Food is a digital humanities project that provides insights into food trends over time through visual representations. Developed in collaboration with Google News Lab and Truth & Beauty, this project uses Google search trend data to explore how people’s interests in food have changed over 15 years.
This project uses food-related search data collected from Google Trends within the United States. The creators collected food-related search terms, including ingredients and recipes, based on FooDB.
The collected search data are classified and analyzed to show seasonal changes. During this process, Google Knowledge Graph was used to select only search terms directly related to food, and the analysis was limited to search records within the United States. Furthermore, changes in search interest over the past 15 years were organized by month and year.
This project presents results as data visualizations. The time is arranged in a circular graph to highlight the repetitiveness of the annual cycle, while the search trend in each food is represented through visual elements such as color and thickness. Users can choose specific foods or ingredients to explore based on their highest interest. This visualization allows users to see the seasonality and cyclical patterns present in food search data as a “rhythm.” Additionally, during periods of high interest in particular foods, it also includes explanations of the cultural context or events relevant to that month, helping the user understand better.
My question with this project is about the use of data. Currently, only data from the U.S. is being collected as a source. I wonder how the “trend” would change if data from other cultural regions, such as Asia or Europe, were included.
The goal of the project was to identify seasonal patterns in food searches and to show them visually through “year clocks.” This visualization makes it easier to observe repeating annual rhythms as well as longer-term trends.
And the project appears to be designed for a broad audience, particularly those curious about food trends and cultural patterns. At the same time, it could also be useful for those in the food industry, who might use these visualized trends to develop seasonal products and attract customers.