present online Shown in person at spaces including the Museum of Contemporary Art Houston and the Museum of the City of New York, the artwork features recordings of 100 people counting from 1 to 100 in a variety of languages, accompanied by white transcriptions on a black screen. Localized to reflect New York City , St. Louis, Houston, Omaha, and Ogden, Utah, as well as locales throughout the United States. A sign language version is also in the works.
Most of the voices are those of people calling their own recordings. The Poetic Justice team then built an algorithm that “selects the least documented languages and weights them so you hear them more often,” Ijeoma said. Video changes over time as new records are added.
‘Counting’ is the latest in a series of artworks that use Ijeoma’s information technology background to transform cold data into something emotive. “I wanted to create a contemporary portrait. What better way [than] Using modern tools and techniques—those data analysis and data visualization—not in a literal way, but in a poetic way? ” He said.
