This wasn't a standard article about art that featured both words and pictures. This was a very simple and interesting way to show how long this artist has been alive. In the Cabinet Magazine Online, there was a link by Ron Lent entitled, "Days I've Been Alive." When you click on it, it takes you to this very basic gray computer screen that explains that this is how many days he's been alive represented by dots. There are just rows after rows of tiny dots. Each of these dots represents a day this person has been alive. I took the time to count them and there are exactly the number it says on the top, which today is 15144, meaning the guy is 41.
I thought this was interesting because it's a very simple idea that anyone could do, only I've never seen it before. It reminds me of the stereotypical tally that is kept in prison in movies of how many days a prisoner has been in that cell. It was very cool to see all the dots fill the page. When you think of your age in terms of years, it doesn't seem like that high of a number. But when you physically map out the amount of days on one page on the computer, it really lets you see how long you've been living and how many days you've experienced. I thought it was a very cool way to appreciate all the time you've spent on earth so far. I'm sure the artist just thought it would be a neat calender of his age. If he wanted to go further, there could be a way of color coding certain events in his life. For example, if he wanted to see how many days he's celebrated his or others birthdays, he could make that dot for that day orange. If he wanted to see how many days he had to know someone died, whether it be someone close to him or someone he read about in the paper like a celebrity, he could make that dot green. Messing around with the dots of our days is a creative way to see just how many days were similar to other days. I guess the only way you could pull this off is if you have a really good memory, or lots of dates written down to include in this. Either way, I liked his concept of being able to literally see your past.
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Kate -
Thanks for sharing this. It is an intriguing project - simple yet also persistent in a way to suggest a kind of endurance. I also like the idea, am intrigued by the idea, of some kind of daily practice.
Do you know Renato Umali's work? He is something of an artist-diarist, personal statistician, recording a number of facts about each day, which he tallies in various charts, graphs, images. He then shares the results in an annual mock-awards show. I wish he was online somewhere helpful, but he is featured in a book by Jennifer New called _Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art_ In fact you may be interested in a number of the artists presented there and how they "diary."
The comparison to the tally of a prisoner seems apt and is, gulp, a but chilling.
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