Last year I spent much of my time taking photos of myself every day I worked on my thesis. I’m kinda hooked on the 365 photo sets. And now, I have a wonderful new toy that performs very well in low light.
I also want to stave off the post-PhD and post-Digital Revolution doldrums. So I have a new project. I’m telling the first 369 words of Orwell’s classic 1984 (one of my all-time favourite books and a novel that is preposterously relevant to the Internet medium) on a one-word-per-day basis throughout 2010 using the lens of my magnificent new Canon EOS 7D.
You can follow the progress on Flickr.
Comments
I’ve never read 1984. Maybe this will get me into it:)
I can’t believe that you don’t have hundreds of comments here after that wonderful programme last night. I love year-long one a day projects. In 2006 I did a ‘walk a minimum of a mile from home and do a sketch on your walk’ project. It was great fun – it felt like a real achievement at the end of the year. The website for that is www.onemilefromhome.com
Congratulations on an awesome programme (Virtual Rev, Ep 1). It was simple to understand and also very deep at the same time. That-hard to-achieve characteristic is shared with Animal Farm, another masterpiece by the author of 1984. Two legs good…
I did do it every day (the dog wouldn’t have tolerated less) however I let myself off the hook on our two week holiday in Greece – I did the sketch, but in that heat I substituted the walk with a swim. Oh and sometimes my daily effort was piss-poor, but I still posted it. It was very good for getting over feeling precious about my sketches.
I’m really looking forward to the rest of the programmes.
Hang on… stomach bug? It’s us men that complain about being ill and going on about being terminal with ‘flu’ when we mean we’ve caught a chill. You women are immune to pain – pregnancy is just a breeze and all that. Tomorrow is Tuesday. Now, where’s that duvet…
Actually ‘1984 in photographs, one word, one day at a time’ turns out to be a brilliant concept. When I first saw it – in logging on to congratulate you on an excellent TV programme – I just thought ‘OK. Bit kooky. Nice idea.’ But it has been growing on me. On thinking about it and reflecting on it, it’s actually a lot better than some conceptual art that wins major prizes. The weird thing is that it really works with 1984, where it would be totally crass with many other great novels.
I love this project and the visual wit of the photos (the shot of the chicken breasts is my personal fave). 1984 is a great book and agree it has parrallels to the internet – once you put anything out here on the web, you become a target. Heck, I just got an email offering me B2B, B2C email lists so I can target others. I see it as an immense struggle between our narcissism and voyeurism.
The geeky techy side of me wants to know how you did the illuminated writing? Long exposure & sparkler?? When you’ve finished the set you can use import image sequence in Quicktime and save the whole thing as a Quicktime movie. That would be cool.
Best,
Alex (@blufftheguff)
Do it backwards, Aleks – than we will be able to read it afterwards …
Day 34 “the”. Terrible to clean up, you say? I don’t think so somehow:)
Very creative and interesting so far.
That’s one tasty looking ‘the’ – love the concept and the photos.
I may be missing something here, but why is it the first 369 words rather than 365? Hmmmm: 365 would stop at “the cold winter that” i.e. in the middle of a sentence, whereas 369 leads to the first word of the next paragraph, unless the on-line copy I’m looking at is wrong. I’m beginning to be sorry I asked.
Great programme Aleks, I have bookmarked wikileaks and told my friends. Is it me or can networking lead to some kind of anarchy?
Love the red hair and ur look, intellect and sexiness potent combination!!
I am in the middle of a project based on internet porn called GAPE and will be looking for a collaborator perhaps, take a peek if u r not too busy,
laters
Jumbo
Wow, Aleks, that’s amazing, really beautiful work.
I’m amazed how much you manage to pack in to your day. I’m doing the last few pages of my PhD now and it’s swallowed my life, I don’t do anything else! 8 days to first draft now though, but I’m just so bored of it!
Anyway, as you can tell, I’m one of the distracted generation. Really just wanted to say loved the TV programme (I was a big bits fan too, so I was always going to, really) and then I saw this, which is great too. :)
Keep up the fabulous, multifaceted, work.
Mat
I’ve now bought a copy of 1984 and am about halfway through. Scary book. Also bought Huxley’s Brave New World.
My all time favourite novel and painfully relevant to the world we live in today. Your photos are beautiful.
Life outside is very difficult, especially now that prices such high, would like to out to dinner should be make good consider the following, alas, cups. .
I’m amazed how much you manage to pack in to your day. I’m doing the last few pages of my PhD now and it’s swallowed my life, I don’t do anything else! 8 days to first draft now though, but I’m just so bored of it!