MapReduce in Two Modern Paintings

Two years ago we had a rare family outing at the Dallas Museum of Art (my son is a teenager and he's into sport after all). DMA hosted an excellent exhibition of modern art and allowed taking pictures. Two hours and dozen of pictures later my weekend was over but thanks to Google Photos I stumbled upon those pictures again. Suddenly, I realized that two paintings captured make up an illustration of one of the most important framework in big data - MapReduce.

There are multiple papers, tutorials and web pages about it and to truly understand and use framework like this one should study at least a few thoroughly. There are also illustrations of MapReduce architecture and principles out there too.

But the power of art can express more with less and with just two paintings below I will try to illustrate this for MapReduce.  

First, we have the work by Erró Foodscape, 1964:

Erró

Foodscape, 1964

Oil on canvas

It illustrates variety, richness, potential of insight (if consumed properly), and of course, scale. The painting is boundless with no ends to the table surface in all 4 directions. Observe many types of food and drinks, packaging, presentations, varying in colors, texture and origin (better quality image found here). Thus the painting represents big data so much better than any flowchart or diagram.

The 2d and final painting is by Wayne Thiebaud Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts, 1962:

Wayne Thiebaud

Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts, 1962

Oil on canva

Should we think of how MapReduce works this seemingly infinite table fittingly resembling conveyor belt looks like a result of split-apply-combine on food items from Foodscape universe. Indeed, each vertical group is a combination of the same type of finished and plated food combined into variably sized groups and ready to serve (better quality image found here). One can imagine an invisible hand of MapReduce process grouping and arranging items as they flow over conveyor belt.

As with any art there is much about MapReduce that was left out of the picture. That's why we still have papers, books, and Wikipedia.  And again, I'd like to remind of importance of taking your kids to a museum.