LG Smartphone

Yes i'm saying BeReal stole my idea.

During one day a photograph is taken every hour with a phones front and back camera. The photograph is taken automatically with no framing or consideration. This documentation anthropamorphises a phone as a companion to its user. The phone is a tool, used daily for an dizzying array of functions. It is flatly seen as a device to make our lives simpler. This piece explores the phone not as a device but as a fly on the wall observer throughout the day. Taking it from being an object to serve the purpose of its user to a personified spectator.

When projecting a narrative on this photo series we can imagine the phone as a organism with eyes, lying in a bag. Later they may be taken out to accompany it's user on the bus and distract them, staring at eachother. If we project our emotions onto our mobile do we feel we have a healthy relationship as we would with a companion?

Recontextualising technology as active viewer creates fresh assessment on our relationship with technology. If we imagine the phone is a participant in the day, we could see it almost as a needy dog, requiring attention and giving distraction and companionship.

There is a unintentional but obvious association with surveillance in the series. If viewed as the diary of unwelcome guest we assume when not in use our phones are inactive. This understanding of the performance may solicit anxiety when imagining our phones as spyware for a bad actor or government. If we view it as a communication and storage device of our personal data with a separate awareness from it being an insentient object. How does this effect our understanding of this implement.

The performance lasted for a full day and was unobtrusive to this period. The device that allowed such a casual production of work could be seen as the producer or collaborator. The technology's inputs and outputs both presented in tandem.

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