☛ Toril Johannesse: “Revolutions in Time” from the Words and Years series, silkscreen print, 76×56 cm, 2010-2011. © Toril Johannessen.

An example from the “Words and Years” series by Norwegian artist Toril Johannesse. It shows a graph visualizing the occurrence of the word “revolution” in Time magazine between 1923 and 2011. I constantly need to remind myself that an increasing occurrence of a word doesn’t necessarily translate into an increasing occurrence of the phenomenon (or thing) it signifies (yet another case where it would be easy to confuse correlation with direct causation).
Artist statement:

Words and Years is a series of graphs based on research in various academic journals and news magazines. Going through the complete volumes of the journals from the first issues up until today, selected words are higlighted and the frequency of their use is mapped.

About the artist:

Bergen based artist Toril Johannessen works across various media such as photography, text, drawing, sculpture, storytelling and installation. Johannessen’s interdisciplinary practice often engages a scientific thematic through empirical and theoretical investigation of the relationship between art and science. She has exhibited widely in Europe including recent solo exhibitions at Bergen Kunsthall and the Oslo Fine Art Society. Johannessen is currently a member of the Flaggfabrikken Centre for Photography and Visual Arts, a Bergen based artist collective. (from The Western Front)

First spotted via Colt + Rane