- Anthropometrics Vol. I —
tip of the nose to outstretched hand = one meter
Anthropometrics Vol. I
- 2004–09
- c-prints/screen-printed posters (series of 12)
- W 42cm x 50cm / W 100cm x H 125cm
This suite of images operates as an inventory of ‘colloquial’ methods of measurement using the human body as their base reference; the demonstration of these measurements results in the idiosyncratic gestures captured in the photographs.
Anthropometrics seeks to trace and document methods of measurement that remain in use parallel to standardized modes of measurement. These types of ‘biometric’ measurements have a kinship to oral history that is passed on by generations of families or other social networks, rather than through official institutions. They require face-to-face exchange, rather than abstract or remote forms of interaction.
During a three-month period in 2006, the project appeared across the city of Vancouver in the form of large screen-printed posters. Mirroring the informal modes of measurement represented in the images, the work’s dissemination relied on the informal (and semi-legal) marketing economy that utilizes transitional, temporarily unregulated urban sites such as abandoned buildings and construction hoardings.