"Running the Numbers" by artist Chris Jordan
May 9, 2009 at 7:00 AM 
This Chris Jordan is a scientifical art genius. The print above depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006. I highly, highly recommend seeing more of his work here. Really cleaver stuff.
Running the Numbers
An American Self-Portrait
Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. 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 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.
This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.
~chris jordan, Seattle, 2008
Reader Comments (3)
To many words and numbers, paint the picture and I'll come up with my own conclusion lol. Hey Mr. Ecko I would like your feedback on my product, I describe it as the Ecko of athletic apparel
1) It's not limited to just a logo
2)creative and artistic
3)and has meaning.......... sometimes
check it out http://www.poeticplayers.com/ , actually I would like anyones feedback
la verdad you creo que a todos ustedes les gusta la verga y que la panocha de su vieja esta bien jedionda. Les apesta muy feo?
Y su mama? tiene pelos en los sobacos y pucha?
Me avisan si quieren que les chupe los pezones
What a scream. Saw Chris speak at an event once, his Intolerable Beauty series is badass.