I’m Counting On You

Overview

I’m Counting on You (ICOY) [“ee-ko-ee”] is a conceptual art piece celebrating numbers, language and diversity. The first iteration is meant to be audio only. It is meant to be meditative in the sense that the audio is evenly and slowly paced. It streams the digits of an infinite decimal number as a spoken word performance in a variety of human languages. It embraces numbers such as π because they represent infinite diversity and the universe of possibility. It embraces language as both representational like numbers but also representative of human diversity in the senses of culture and point-of-view. It embraces a constant, relaxed rhythm as meditative, reflective, and peaceful.

Objectives

  1. Provide a peaceful, thought-provoking, spoken number experience to any interested, hearing human.
  2. Provide a basis for follow-on projects in the future with same intent, but providing a more elaborate experience.

Inspirations

  1. Irrational Numbers
    1. Intrigue
    2. Bones of the Universe
    3. Diversity and Completeness
    4. The Accessible Ineffable
  2. Human Language
    1. Ideas
    2. Voices
    3. Diversity
  3. Numbers Stations
    1. Clarity
    2. Rhythm
    3. Mystery

Values

  1. Everyone is welcome.
    1. Accessibility will be a core design consideration
    2. Gender neutral pronouns
  2. All collaborators (those that help with actualizing the project) will be acknowledged.
  3. All contributors (those that contribute audio recordings) will be acknowledged.
  4. Everyone’s privacy will be respected and protected.
  5. Open source technology will be given priority over commercial technology.
  6. Only funding and resources without conditions and from organizations that reflect our values will be accepted.

Experience

  1. Audience navigates to the ICOY website, which displays a “Play” button, and an “About” link.
  2. Clicking the play button starts a stream of spoken digits in a slow, even pace. Each spoken digit will be in a different language than the last. The stream is controlled by a typical audio control widget.
    1. Upgrade: Dynamic typographic display of the currently spoken digit in the script of the current language.
  3. Clicking the About link displays a textual explanation of the ICOY project followed by a current list of contributors.
    1. Upgrade: Language selector to change the About text.