Alison Cornyn
Sand Counting Lab

Over a table covered with sand, there are two electronic counters: one ticking the real time population of the U.S., the other changing every five minutes as another person enters a prison in the United States. A video image of grains of sand being counted is projected onto the table. A chair invites the visitor to slow down and re-consider the individuals objectified by the counting. Between the desire to grasp the significance of a quantifiable event and the methods used to represent it, there is a large gap. Whether or not statistics can provide us with a truthful number, we will still feel a lack. Because what is really missing is the experience that would connect us to the person the number is supposed to represent. This silent space is the subject of this project.