In the Future [100x100] (2007) is a data sculpture created in collaboration with Christopher O'Leary. The work consists of a stack of 100 1-foot square acrylic plates with each plate representing one year from 1906 to 2006. Each plate has 100 holes that correspond to the top 100 most frequent noun phrases associated with the phrase "in the future" for each year according to Google News Archive, Google Scholar, and Google Blog search results. The diameter of each hole varies with the relative frequency of each term. For example, in the plate for 1945, the hole for the term "war" has a large diameter since many people were making predictions about the future of warfare. The plates are each 3/8" thick and are stacked vertically on top of 4 small plastic supports with the oldest plate (1906) at the bottom and the most recent one (2006) on the top. The entire height of the piece (with supports) is 40". A horizontal beam of white light randomly walks up and down one side of the sculpture, illuminating one plate at a time.
The piece was installed as part of the DMA First-Year MFA show in the UCLA Broad Arts Center in June 2007. The prototype shown here is a sketch for a larger installation and was created for the Spring 2007 course Database Aesthetics which was co-taught by Professors Mark Hansen and Jean-François Blanchette.
Press coverage:
• Sabine Zurel, “100 jaar toekomst,” BRIGHT 19 (December-January 2008), 16.
• information aesthetics blog (24 September 2007)
• librarian.net (24 September 2007)