Of all of the ways of conveying information to each other, statistics is the driest and least packed with any kind of meaning or feeling or emotion. Presenting numbers in the billions and trillions is even more difficult for advocates, politicians, journalists (and bloggers). Some people believe visualizing big numbers can help make them comprehensible. Other think using metaphor is probably the best way to get the information across.
Seattle-based artist Chris Jordan opened his exhibit, “Running the Numbers” in New York recently. This exhibit translates statistics about American consumption into images - for instance, a 5′ x 8′ depiction of 11,000 jet trails, equivalent to the number of commercial flights in the U.S. every eight hours. They are very unique and deserve a deep look.
4 comments:
These are incredible pictures and the statement they make is quite startling.
Thanks for pointing me to another great site!
If your a collector or a saver (won't throw anything away) these pictures are like an aphrodisiac.
This is very, very interesting, and the "Running the Numbers" exhibit looks wonderful. Part of my job involves the meaningful display of information, and another part of it involves sitting through endless hours of poor presentations of data. You may be interested in the website and work of Dr Edward Tufte, one of the Grand Old Men of data presentation (http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/). My daughter and I attended one of his seminars a few years ago, and I own all of his books (which are masterpieces). It surely would be nice if his thoughts on the effective graphical presentation of data were followed by more people. Strongly recommend you check it out! Bilbo.
Bilbo, thanks for the info. Dr Edward Tufte has sure setup the STANDARD for people to look up when doing data presentations.
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