Artist Statement

WEARABLE EXPERIENCE

WATCH is a wristwatch that cross-references the wearer’s position with a small set of environmental, economic and social statistics about their location in space. It provides a means for wearers to juxtapose an experience of the world through statistical summaries with the understanding they derive in person using their eyes, ears and hands.
The idea for this project emerged after Rebecca Ross spent some time on Staten Island’s Fresh Kills Landfill, now a completely treeless span of brown dirt. While there she noted the US Geological Survey’s perfectly accurate classification of the land (based on rainfall) as Deciduous Forest.
The purpose of this project is not to discount the usefulness of statistical summary data, nor is it to give wearers any particular opportunities to dispute the veracity of data, though these are both potential readings [depending on the inclinations of wearers). More specifically, the goal is to wrestle with the benefits and limits of quantitative summaries of human experience by restoring their relationship in space with the circumstances they describe. This is especially crucial within the context of a culture that relies heavily on statistical summary in decision-making.

• Rebecca Ross (US) is a visiting faculty member at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU and a Research Scientist at the NYU Center for Advanced Technology. Her work focuses on infrastructure for public participation in data and media, and spatial information in particular.

Full document (PDF) p. 115