May 4, 2008...6:52 am
a better way to digest statistics
Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used every fifteen minutes.
Artist Chris Jordan is known for his enormous photographs which visually examine consumerism and social issues in the US, through statistics and repetition. Below is just a segment of his larger piece, Prison Uniforms, which depicts 2.3 million folded prison uniforms (the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005):
It’s hard to fully digest and understand the statistics that are regularly thrown at us in the news, at work, or on the streets. I love the use of art as a mechanism for better comprehension of numbers.
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