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# Sum of the Arts
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/sum-of-the-arts-24/
- Published: 2015-08-21T11:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:43:08.000Z
- Description: Miles messages can travel in Turkey's old whistling language = 3
- Author: Allison Meier
- Tags: Art, Sum of the Arts, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![Thomas Davies, "An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara" (1762), considered the first eyewitness painting of Niagara Falls (courtesy Christie's)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/niagarafallsdavies.jpg)

Thomas Davies, “An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara” (1762), considered the first eyewitness painting of Niagara Falls (courtesy Christie’s)

*Inspired by the* [*Harper’s Index*](http://harpers.org/departments/harpers-index/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*,* [*Sum of the Arts*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/sum-of-the-arts/) *is a periodic tabulation of numbers floating around the art world and beyond.*

- Year in which Thomas Davies [completed](http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/aug/19/niagara-falls-export-bar-placed-first-eyewitness-painting?ref=hyperallergic.com) the first eyewitness painting of Niagara Falls, including a rainbow = **1762**
- Miles messages can travel in Turkey’s [whistling language](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28052-ancient-whistle-language-uses-whole-brain-for-long-distance-chat/?ref=hyperallergic.com) \= **3**
- Number of hand-colored and hand-cut sheets in [an 18th-century paper peep show](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghton/2015/08/14/early-home-entertainment-engelbrechts-miniature-theatres/?ref=hyperallergic.com) \= **6-8**
- Weight in pounds of each of Henry the taxidermy elephant’s tusks, which [were replaced](http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/how-a-museum-gives-an-elephant-a-facelift/1799/?ref=hyperallergic.com) by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the 1970s with lighter fiberglass = **90**
- Percentage of light [trapped by](http://nautil.us/issue/27/dark-matter/the-reinvention-of-black?ref=hyperallergic.com) the carbon nanotubes on artist Frederik De Wilde’s black square “NanoBlck-Sqr #1” = **99.99**
- Feet of metallic fabric in [Zaha Hadid’s shelter](http://www.archdaily.com/772163/zaha-hadid-unveils-high-line-installation?ref=hyperallergic.com) protecting pedestrians from her residential building construction on the High Line = **112**
- Number of ticking clocks Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Devon[ hopes to collect](http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art534136-gallery-public-clock-after-winning-museums-night-luke-jerram-artwork-visit-whisker?ref=hyperallergic.com) for a “garden of time” installation by Luke Jerram = **1,000**
- Number of years Georgia’s Crypt of Civilization, the first modern time capsule, is [intended to be buried](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/time-capsules-futurism/401327/?ref=hyperallergic.com) \= **6,177**
- Number of plastic bottles [sculpted](http://www.creativeboom.com/culture/two-life-size-whales-swim-through-an-ocean-of-70000-plastic-bottles-in-bristol/?ref=hyperallergic.com) into waves for two life-size whales made from willow in Bristol = **70,000**
- Number of segmented worm specimens in the [American Museum of Natural History](http://tumblr.amnh.org/post/126119479164/curious-what-makes-up-the-more-than-33-million?ref=hyperallergic.com) \= **3,516,100**