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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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| How did you get the idea for the show? |
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| Why did you choose to use rice? |
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| What happens to the rice afterwards? |
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| Couldnt you feed lots of starving people with this rice? |
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| How do you choose your statistics? |
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| Where do you find your statistics? |
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| How do you count the rice out? |
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| How does this work, I cant be in two piles at once? |
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How did you get the idea for the show?
The short answer is that we wanted to understand how many people there are in the world. We knew the number was 6,200,000,000 but we didnt know what this really meant. We thought if we could look at 6,2000,000,000 objects gathered together then that might help us understand.
A longer answer to this question is contained here:
Making Of All The People In All The World
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Why did you choose to use rice?
We needed to find a substance that came in regular size grains so we could use a grains per gram calculation. We needed grains that were small, cheap, robust and which wouldnt roll around. Rice qualified in all these ways. It also has powerful resonance being a staple food for much of the world and looking vaguely humanoid in close up.
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What happens to the rice afterwards?
We own 1 ton of rice, which we reuse for all our small UK gigs. Elsewhere promoters supply our rice, part of the contract is they satisfy us that they will dispose of the rice ethically. For all large versions the show in Europe the rice has been taken back by the supplier for washing and resale. Smaller versions usually see the rice given away to charity or for animal feed.
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Couldnt you feed lots of starving people with this rice?
Rice from the UK version cost £400 would keep a small Chinese Takeaway going for two and a half months. On a global scale this is insignificant. The Worlds food crisis centres on an unequal distribution of wealth not a lack of food. We dispose of our rice ethically (see question the above).
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How do you choose your statistics?
Our choice responds to the shows location and what is going on in the world at that time. We look to represent as broad a range of human activity as we can. Individual performers choose what statistics to place where in consultation with their colleagues and with regular input from visitors to the show.
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Where do you find your statistics?
We draw statistics from newspapers, journals, academic books, the television, radio and internet. Sometimes we count them ourselves and on other occasions we ask people to supply them for us. We only use statistics from sources we have confidence in. Occasionally we place Official and unofficial versions of the same statistic together as an acknowledgement that we cannot take these numbers at face value.
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How do you count the rice out?
We counted a large number of grains onto delicate scales and took an average for the number of grains per gram. We tend to count numbers up to 200 by hand and weigh out anything larger. Although this is inevitably an approximation so are most of the statistics themselves. Ultimately the show is about proportions, this beside that, using the same formula for all statistics keeps these proportions accurate.
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How does this work, I cant be in two piles at once?
Occasionally people think the show is flawed because they belong in two piles at once but shouldnt be counted twice. The simplest way to think of it is to consider the grains of rice as actors, in the UK version the cast is the population of the UK, but more than one rice-actor could play you at the same time in two different piles.
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