After interacting with various course materials dealing with watching, being watched, and the recording of peoples' daily lives, I began to form a general idea of what I wanted to do for my final project. With all of this obsession over watching and being watched, both voluntarily and involuntarily, I began to feel the need to contribute to the conversation by creating watchable content of my own. I wanted to create a semi-autobiographical video. However, I initially wasn't sure how I would film my days...
I became intrigued initially by the concept that every second of a person's experience, even the most mundane or potentially intrusive moments, can be valuable to others. This came up both while discussing Jennicam and Mae's Transparency in The Circle. While I began planning with the notion that I would film a whole day of my life, just as these two women did, it became a logistical nightmare. I am an insanely busy human, and an incredibly talented and creative procrastinator to boot; so when it came to planning a day to film (which couldn't be a work day due to policies regarding patron and employee privacy at the library) I ended up running out of days and time. I also just felt strange about filming myself for a whole day, as well as sharing that experience with others. I was also unsure how to keep up consistency, and then wary of the hours upon hours it would take to edit / publish the final product. So, that idea came and went. Then, right as I had lost hope, one of the Show-and-Tells inspired me to adapt.
The "A Second a Day for a Year" presentation and video made me rethink not only the manner in which I would portray myself, but the shooting tactics I could use to gather footage. I decided to create a short 2-3 minute video compiled of short video snippets (1-5 seconds) that I took at random times during the day. One thing that really interested me about this particular video shown, was that it was used to portray that the creator had a full life, ample friends, and travel opportunities. However, most of us spend an inordinate amount of time getting ready, being couch potatoes, and doing other activities not normally labeled 'exciting', 'enjoyable', or 'entertaining.' While many people use social media and 'second a day' videos to show the best parts of their days or the worst parts for entertainment value, I wondered about all of those ambiguous moments in their lives. So, I decided that my video would be an even more honest representation of my life if these short clips were either decided at random, or of pointedly dull/meaningless moments in my days.
And thus, I came to realize my final project. I will post the video, as well as a reflection on this course soon!
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