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Freedom in Numbers –

Balancing Voice, Memory, Media, and Movement 2005

Freedom in Numbers is conceived as both artifact and medium—an assemblage of more than 1,837 components into 144 layers that together embody the collective pursuit of liberty. Structurally organized through tension and compression, the sculpture extends outward as a metaphor for the balance required to sustain freedom. Ten embedded digital screens display curated images and videos, presenting pivotal moments in the nation’s ongoing struggle toward justice and equality. These shifting narratives allow individual voices to resonate within the collective whole, linking media, movement, and memory.

The sculpture’s material and visual composition reflects the multiple states through which ideas manifest, with imagery symbolizing broader freedom movements across history. Its conceptual framework echoes the Tribune Tower’s assemblage of 149 global fragments—including a moon rock, a stone from the Great Pyramids, and steel from the World Trade Center—reframing the act of collecting as a living platform for reflection rather than monumental permanence.

Designed as the centerpiece of the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, the nation’s first museum dedicated to the First Amendment, the work foregrounds the role of architecture and design in mediating civic memory. Through its interactive form, the sculpture invites visitors to reconsider the evolving meanings of freedom as both personal experience and shared cultural inheritance.

HIGHLIGHTS Selected as a finalist in the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum Sculpture Competition, an international two-stage competition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the McCormick Tribune Foundation. From 700 submissions representing 34 countries, ten proposals advanced to Stage II. Freedom in Numbers was installed in the storefront of the Freedom Museum at the Tribune Tower in 2005, serving as a public-facing introduction to the museum’s mission of exploring the meaning of freedom through design, media, and civic dialogue.

The project was also included in Public Process for Public Architecture, an exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Foundation held in the Railway Exchange Building from January 2005 to May 2006. Freedom in Numbers was included in Celebrating Freedom: 12151791, authored by James Yood and published by the University of Chicago Press in 2006.