PAUL RUCKER
In May of 2009, Paul Rucker partook of a two week residency at the Blue Mountain Center. The theme: Prison Issues.
During his research he happened upon some pioneer GIS maps by Rose Heyer which modeled the growth of the US prison system. With the information he composed an original score. A note to accompany each carceral outpost to blink into existence in the “Land of the Free.”
232 years in 10 minutes and 45 seconds.
ROSE HEYER
Incidentally, Rose Heyer is a wonderful thinker. She developed the GIS methodology for the Prisoners of the Census project, enabling quick calculations of how Census Bureau’s prison miscount distorts representative democracy.
Heyer produced the map U.S. Prison Proliferation, 1900-2000 and she co-authored Too big to ignore: How counting people in prisons distorted Census 2000, Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Massachusetts Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Texas, Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Ohio, and Thirty-Two Years After Attica: Many More Blacks in Prison but not as Guards. Rose is now GIS and CAD consultant in California.
(Source)
Prison Photography 
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March 20, 2011 at 9:39 am
Robert Gumpert
It is interesting how dense the lights are along the east and gulf coasts even with California’s second highest (I think) prison population. I wish there were dates along the timeline so we could get a historical perspective on when the major “growth” spurts happened? Were they during downturns in the economy? Who was in power? Were there wars in the offing? Were there campaigns (scheduled and otherwise) going on?
March 20, 2011 at 11:31 am
petebrook
Robert. I have added a updated the post and added a link to the Heyer’s maps. It is in fact 232 years and not 300. The mapping begins in 1778, so the different colours correspond to historical periods 1778-1900; 1901-1940; 1941-1980; 1981-2000. Still, one has to apply their own knowledge of political change to those dates.
September 5, 2011 at 5:10 pm
nathan eyring
Paul was clear that it was best for our purposes to leave the timeline vague, leaning toward the impact that develops visually during the video. The realization slowly sets in. If you look closely, a single dot barely shows up. By the time a color can be discerned, you’re looking at several dots in proximity or overlapping. It represents a vast number of prisons.
The green dots, which appear more slowly, represent more than 100 years. The yellow and orange dots are 40 years each. The red dots which quickly overwhelm the image is a mere 25 years. This animation wasn’t created explain or entertain; it represents the data in a very particular manner which takes time to digest. It’s one thing to know the US has a great many prisons, but it’s something entirely different to see each one appear solitarily in the blackness eventually depicting the very shape of the country.
thanks for watching.
nathan eyring
(the animator)
August 3, 2012 at 9:08 am
Why King County doesn’t need a new juvenile hall – Seattle Globalist
[…] in the middle of a prison nation. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please check out “Proliferation” by Paul Rucker, which tracks how prisons have sprung up like daisies in the US in the last 232 […]
August 5, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Seattle Globalist article against the plan for new juvenile hall | GREY COAST ANARCHIST NEWS
[…] in the middle of a prison nation. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please check out “Proliferation” by Paul Rucker, which tracks how prisons have sprung up like daisies in the US in the last 232 […]
December 16, 2015 at 6:24 pm
On the Importance Of Interactive Tools For Prison Reform | Prison Photography
[…] federal, ICE and private facilities. In art, Josh Begley’s Prison Map and Paul Rucker’s Proliferation have both tried to present the terrifying growth of the PIC in ways that engage gallery goers and […]