This project would create a measuring device in some heavily foot-trafficked
hallway or corridor. The device consists of several hundred identical
mechanical counting machines spaced evenly along one side of the
passageway. Each counter advances when someone passes in front
of it.
They start at zero, but the thousands of people passing by will
quickly cause the counters to step irregularly, each day producing
increasingly divergent records. People turning around, backtracking,
pacing or running will affect the counting and introduce numerical
inconsistencies. Children will probably trip the counters just
to hear and see the numbers increase. These factors produce a
work of growing complexity in which the things counted (us) challenge
the solidity of numbers and reveal the folly of statistical analysis.
Passing crowds will become one fluid entity, individuals that
cannot be quantified. Everyone who uses the tunnel will help reinforce
the quantum mechanical and completely human principle that observation
irrevocably changes the observed.
The counters click audibly when they advance, and the sound of
hundreds advancing in unison and in sequence will add another
level to the piece. I imagine the sound will be evocative of many
things beyond simply it's own mechanical processes. Geiger counters,
lie detectors, seismographs, telegraphs and sonar equipment all
rely upon seemingly meaningless clicks that once deciphered yield
measurements, stories and histories. The tunnels are never quiet,
the sounds of shoes and conversations echo off the walls and ceiling
filling the air. The clicking of the counters will weave into
the existing sounds adding a layer of meaning like subliminal
messages in music or pictures.