GDP, the CPI, the unemployment rate. Each is a choice about what counts, made by people, revisable, and used as though it were a thermometer.
ON THE FLOOR
Charles Horton Cooley
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“You learned who you are by watching what other people reflected back at you. The mirror, it turns out, was people all along.”
ON THE FLOOR
Edward Soja
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“Space is not the stage the story happens on - it is one of the actors. Ask WHERE, and half the mystery answers itself.”
ON THE FLOOR
George Herbert Mead
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“The self is a conversation: the I speaking, the Me listening with everyone else's ears. You rehearse society every time you think.”
LAB2-031 · The Index — Open the drawer
A laminated data-collection form used by Bureau of Labor Statistics field agents to record retail prices monthly at specific store locations, forming the raw input for Consumer Price Index calculations.
LAB2-032 · The Index — What is this thing?
A laminated wooden clipboard with printed survey forms, pencil marks, and routing notes used by Bureau of Labor Statistics field agents to record retail prices weekly, forming the raw data for the Consumer Price Index calculation.
LAB2-033 · The Index — Read the source
A monthly report page from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the Consumer Price Index calculation, revealing how inflation is measured by selecting specific goods, weightings, and geographic samples rather than all prices everywhere.
LAB2-034 · The Index — Map it / time it
A monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the primary federal source for joblessness data. It illustrates how counting rules—who counts as unemployed, which surveys feed the estimate—shape the number itself.
LAB2-035 · The Index — Two sources disagree
Official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index report for June 2022, showing 9.1% year-over-year inflation. Demonstrates how index construction choices—item selection, weighting, substitution methods—embed judgment into a number presented as objective measurement.
LAB2-036 · The Index — State the claim
A representative shopping basket containing the goods and services tracked monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate inflation, embodying choices about which purchases represent American household spending.
LAB2-037 · The Index — Take the other side
A representative selection of goods and services—food, housing, transportation, medical care—weighted to reflect typical American household spending, used monthly since 1913 to calculate inflation and anchor monetary policy.
LAB2-038 · The Index — Weigh it
A physical and documentary record of the goods and services tracked monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate inflation, showing which items count, how weights shift, and why the same year looks different depending on what you measure.
LAB2-039 · The Index — Build the answer
Official BLS document announcing methodology changes to CPI weighting and basket composition, exemplifying transparent professional revision of economic measurement tools and the iterative refinement that underpins their continued use.
LAB2-040 · The Index — For the file
A representative selection of goods and services tracked monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to measure inflation, illustrating how economists operationalize the abstract concept of price change into a concrete, revisable instrument.
LAB2-041 · The Index — Go and look
A standardized data-collection form used by Bureau of Labor Statistics price collectors to record retail prices of specific goods monthly, revealing how index construction depends on observer choices about location, timing, and product definition.
LAB2-042 · The Index — Now, today
A contemporary grocery store receipt paired with the Bureau of Labor Statistics' current CPI weighting scheme, showing how identical purchases yield different inflation rates depending on which items are counted and how heavily.
LAB2-043 · The Index — Teach it back
A representative selection of goods and services—food, housing, transportation, medical care—weighted and repriced monthly to track inflation. The basket itself changes; what counts as 'typical' is a choice.
LAB2-044 · The Index — The other place
A Bureau of Labor Statistics regional CPI calculation sheet from 1983 showing how identical commodity baskets produced different inflation rates across U.S. metropolitan areas, revealing the constructed nature of price measurement.
LAB2-045 · The Index — One object, close
A standard price-collection worksheet used by Bureau of Labor Statistics field agents to record retail prices of specific goods at sampled outlets, the physical instrument through which abstract economic measurement enters the world.
From the gallery’s own wall — “LAB2-031 · The Index — Open the drawer”.