Ellie Balk: 730 Third Avenue Building Wrap, Murray Hill, Manhattan, November 2020
About 730 Third Avenue Building Wrap, Murray Hill, Manhattan, November 2020
This color-coded timeline compares the rate of change of personal savings, public debt, life expectancy, inflation, the DOW, and social security data sets from 1960–PRESENT. The same image is reflected and installed on the left side and right side of the main entrance, both going back through time around the building. The background blocks of color delineate the decades and the black vertical bars depict each year. All the data has been aggregated to reflect the rate of change and is scaled based on the largest increase and decrease for each individual set of data.
GREEN: Personal Savings
YELLOW: Public Debt
BLUE: Life Expectancy (actual, not rate of change)
PINK/ORANGE: Inflation
TURQUOISE: DOW
ORANGE: Social Security (net rate of change)
All factors in the data sets show relevant patterns and changes that can influence how people fund their own retirement. We can see how changes in the Market and Inflation affect how people are saving and spending their money. We can see life expectancy increase and reliance on pensions decrease. All of these factors influence how people will have to prepare for and manage for their future.
Ellie Balk
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- Ellie Balk
Ellie Balk is an artist obsessed with color, pattern, music, and mathematics. Through a process developed over years of working with community groups and high school students, she created systematic rules and uses mathematical concepts as the basis of her artwork and installations.
Her role in the work is that of a composer. She drives her compositions by creating specific rule sets and color codes that build systems with which can be read and interacted by the viewer. Although the work is formally abstract, there is a language to the compositions that engage participation and investigation.
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