Chris Johnson: Running the Numbers

In his current work, Chris Johnson illustrates the connection between mass consumerism and statistics through art.

To paraphrase Johnson, his hope is that the images will elicit a "different effect" than relying on statistics alone. And as many folks would agree, statistics often feel "abstract and anesthetizing," making it difficult to comprehend and produce meaning out of those raw numbers.

Here's Johnson's visualization of 60,000 plastic bags, the number of bags used in the US every 5 seconds:




Partial zoom:





Up close & personal:



Wowza! This also puts our 72,571 bags gathered at BagFest in a different light.

To see more examples (i.e., cell phones) of Chris Johnson's work, click here. And to read an interview with this artist for Orion magazine, click here.