Census Grid Series
Neil Freeman, 2019
digital print and animation
Census statistical geographies are broken apart and laid into a new grid according to the relative value of a data point for that geographical unit. This reordering is used to show the distributional differences across tracts. Census tracts are an arbitrary way to subdivide patterns of settlement. This abstraction raises the question: what is this system of categorization? Using the Census geographies as graphic elements themselves centers the Census as an engine of meaning in patterns of income, density, family and race.
In these images from New York City, tracts are colored based on the flags of their boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island.
Selections from this series were part of Who We Are, an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.