Core77

The theme at Pop!Tech this year is "The Human Impact" and has appropriately launched with a visually striking presentation by photographer and digital artist Chris Jordan. (You may recognize him from an earlier note.) He brought us through the story of his compelling works in visual statistics, best exemplified by his "Running the Numbers" project, which stemmed from an earlier series called "Intolerable Beauty" that involved photographing consumer waste. While these images are certainly shocking, Jordan realized they lacked statistical accuracy in depicting the enormity of our consumption. How can one truly comprehend the severity of 426 billion plastic bottles discarded in a year? He moved on. He actually sold the bulk of his camera equipment (painful) and invested in a digital point and shoot to produce layered, digital imagery that does literally regurgitate real numbers via a compelling visual medium (Running the Numbers). Jordan created a way for us to "feel" statistics. On that note, Jordan concludes by reminding us that the individual matters, and that feelings, whether fright, anger, or shame, are the trigger that will ultimately make us act.