The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) is the oldest and largest statewide organization in the U.S. working to prevent the devastation caused by firearms. ICHV works on a variety of fronts to educate, raise public awareness, and build coalitions to enact change in laws and behavior.

Gun violence has been recognized as a public health crisis. Every day, 100 people are killed and hundreds more are shot. And Chicago is at the center of the gun violence epidemic sweeping the country. Every week, nearly 40 people are shot across the city. That’s the equivalent of a mass shooting every seven days, yet so many Chicagoans have become numb to the violence. These numbers have become so normal that they don’t even warrant a news story. They get buried on the back page of newspapers in town. Gun violence in Chicago has a more predictable pattern than the weekly weather.

Every week, nearly 40 people are shot across the city. That’s the equivalent of a mass shooting every seven days, yet so many Chicagoans have become numb to the violence. These numbers have become so normal that they don’t even warrant a news story.

How do you shine a new light on a problem that’s plagued Chicago year after year? By putting all the city’s gun violence on one street, making it impossible to ignore.

Lasers are used by forensic scientists to track the path of bullets at crime scenes for use in courtrooms. We borrowed from that technique to create an installation in which each laser represents a victim from a single week of gun violence – all placed on one street. The result is a striking visualization of the problem in the form a walk-through of the gun violence problem.

Chicago has one of the largest gun violence problems in America. Every week, nearly 40 people are shot across the city. That’s the equivalent of a mass shooting every seven days, yet so many Chicagoans have become numb to the violence. To continue their mission of legislative advocacy, The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence needed Chicago, legislators and voters alike, to see the weekly gun violence data in a new light.

We needed to show these people the grim reality of the gun violence problem in a way that was more impactful than the numbers alone - by bringing humanity to the data.

We sourced data from the Chicago Police Department and news and media outlets, and consulted with the University of Chicago Crime Lab to create the installation with the most accurate and real-time data. The process included closely monitoring the city’s gun violence data for 2018 and 2019 – allowing us to determine the best timing to launch the campaign ahead of the predicted period of violence spikes, as well as coordinate timing of the campaign with the legislative calendar.

Most Dangerous Street is a walk-through, week-by-week visualization of Chicago’s gun violence on one street. We collected real time data of Chicago’s gun violence from police data as well as news and media reports, and transformed that into an immersive data-visualization installation.

Guided by emotional audio of victims’ families telling their stories, you are surrounded by laser beams, each representing a victim of gun violence. When you cross through beams, projections display details of the victim, bringing the data to life. People were encouraged to take action through a mobile site dedicated for the SAFE Act. An important piece of legislation needed to get funding for economic development in neighborhoods most affected by gun violence.

The outdoor location was in the heart of Chicago to maximize exposure to legislators and voters. As people were impacted by the experience, they were encouraged to take action with an onsite digital tool to pressure their representatives.

We sourced data from the Chicago Police Department and news and media outlets, and consulted with the University of Chicago Crime Lab to create a walk-through installation of the gun violence problem with the most accurate and real-time data.

Over 40 state legislators and 93% of Chicago-based lawmakers were impacted by the Most Dangerous Street through our onsite digital kiosks and microsite. As a result, the SAFE Act, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence supported bill, is gaining unprecedented momentum in the state legislature, and the SAFE Act is scheduled for a vote in the fall of 2019.