One bead = one year. Size of colored beads is proportional to number of terrorist-caused deaths. Black beads = no terrorist deaths. The largest bead is 2001. Also see Loren Madsen's earlier piece Tops (2001) featuring the same dataset, our entry 1995 – Loren Madsen’s Early Data Sculptures, and our interview with the artist. Sources: Loren Madsen

Worry Beads, one for every year from 1945 (closest in the pic), are scaled at one cc per human life. The volume of each is set by the number of terrorist-caused deaths for that year globally. The whole thing is about 40' long, the largest bead (2014) is 19" dia. There’s other material which hopefully makes clear that the #1 American fear, terrorist attack, is ridiculous. There’s another string of beads, 50" long, which shows terrorist deaths in the US. You’re more likely to be […]

Jordan Cunliffe is an embroidery designer and author with a focus on data and storytelling. Cunliffe is taking traditional and historic textile techniques, and pairing them with contemporary concepts. Her work includes binary encoding of her childhood diary with black and white beads, representing overlapping series of data using embroidery, representing time, sleep patterns, migration patterns, with threads and beads. Jordan Cunliffe is the author of a book called “Record, Map & […]

A handmade bead bracelet visualizing temperature changes in Arkhangelsk city over several decades. Inspired by the Warming Stripes method, each 2 rows encodes a year: red beads for warmer-than-average years, blue for cooler ones. The project involved translating historical climate data into bead colors and weaving them into a tangible artifact—a physical timeline of local global warming. Sources: Project’s Website Information is Beautiful Awards website Related: Also see our entry 2013 – […]