I remember a traditional photography project of a New York artist who took a self-portrait photograph everyday for 3 years. This was her art, the purposeful capturing of her own image over an accumulated period of time. Twenty years later the daily self-portrait is a common sight, such as Noah’s 6 year commitment to photographing himself daily. In this flickering animation of the combined portraits, we get to see Noah’s hair on head and face grow longer and get cut back. Eventually, we see Noah getting older. It is 6 years of his life fit into 5 minutes 45 seconds of dizzying changes in light, clothing, and backgrounds.
The computer scientist and guru, Gordon Bell is also an accumulation artist of sorts. Bell, who works for Microsoft, is busy documenting his entire life digitally and exhaustively. Bell hired an assistant to scan the memorabilia of his life. Childhood and contemporary photos, diplomas, and patents are in Bell’s digital archive. He also stores records of phonecalls, instant-messaging and general conversational notes. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of Bell’s work is the SenseCam he wears around his neck that photographs everything automatically and at regular intervals. This process of tracking, measuring, and archiving everyday life is called Lifelogging.
Lifelogging is not a new phenomena, it just has a new name. Compulsive diarists have included Samuel Pepys, Andy Warhol, Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka and Evelyn Waugh.
The difference between the work of Noah and Gordon Bell is that Noah has organized his project and focused on one aspect of his self, his face. Also, Noah has set music and text to his face film. The biggest aspect that separates Noah’s work from Bell’s is that Noah’s work is displayed to the public on YouTube. Bell’s lifelogging could also become an art exhibition of sorts, breaking the stereotype that you have to be dead to have an autobiographical retrospective. I do like that Noah and Bell both create work from what they know best...themselves.
The computer scientist and guru, Gordon Bell is also an accumulation artist of sorts. Bell, who works for Microsoft, is busy documenting his entire life digitally and exhaustively. Bell hired an assistant to scan the memorabilia of his life. Childhood and contemporary photos, diplomas, and patents are in Bell’s digital archive. He also stores records of phonecalls, instant-messaging and general conversational notes. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of Bell’s work is the SenseCam he wears around his neck that photographs everything automatically and at regular intervals. This process of tracking, measuring, and archiving everyday life is called Lifelogging.
Lifelogging is not a new phenomena, it just has a new name. Compulsive diarists have included Samuel Pepys, Andy Warhol, Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka and Evelyn Waugh.
The difference between the work of Noah and Gordon Bell is that Noah has organized his project and focused on one aspect of his self, his face. Also, Noah has set music and text to his face film. The biggest aspect that separates Noah’s work from Bell’s is that Noah’s work is displayed to the public on YouTube. Bell’s lifelogging could also become an art exhibition of sorts, breaking the stereotype that you have to be dead to have an autobiographical retrospective. I do like that Noah and Bell both create work from what they know best...themselves.
