So I’ve been really really lazy on the blog front this year.
January has been and gone, and now it’s almost the end of February and I find that I still haven’t got round to writing anything. I promise to rectify this from now.
Where has the time gone?
Not only do weeks seem to fly but I realised that last month I’d been living in London for two years. Two years which has flown by in a blink!
Recently, I’ve been having loads of conversations with my friends now (gasp) 30 is approaching at a rather hideous rate, where did the last decade go?
I was thinking about this when I watched a video on TED by a guy called Cesar Kuriyama watch it here – who has decided to film one second every day to create one long documentary of his life.
”If I live to 80, I will have a five-hour video that summarizes 50 years of my life,” he says to applause. “At 40, I’ll have a one-hour video of my 30s.”
As I was watching this I just thought, how awesome. Just imagine being able to put on a movie in your old age and remember every day from your whole life..
There are so many tiny, beautiful, funny, tragic moments in your life, but its impossible to remember them all. I personally can barely remember what I did last weekend unless someone prompts me.
Watching the film as an outsider is on the one hand, little more than an interesting montage of randomness but at the same time its also an endearing insight into this persons life.. Birthdays, trips, drinking sessions, quiet moments, food. The most moving part of Kuriyama’s film so far is taken when his sister in law is taken seriously ill in hospital. This quiet footage of a family, hoping and waiting, is perhaps a time which you would think you wouldn’t want to remember but the artist says that by filming each day it helped to process and dealt with what was happening.
Kuriyama says that although there are days when narrowing your choice down to one moment is difficult – in the process of choosing, it makes the other moments connect with that second.
Now I’m no documentary film maker. I don’t even know how to begin editing a movie. But the end result is such an intriguing concept that it makes me want to give it a go, something which Kuriyama encourages more people to do – creating a global montage of lifetimes.
What I like about this idea is that it makes you view your life slightly differently, as the audience. And it makes you want to step out of the mundane in order to create a more interesting second.
When I was talking to someone about this they suggested that this was building a fake experience because you wouldn’t have done it without the need to film it. But I think that anything which makes you leave of the daily grind and forces you to have a new experience… Surely that can only be a good thing!?
And so what if you get flu and are in bed for two weeks, isn’t that representative of how life is? The ecstasy and the ordinary pretty much in equal quantities.
Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not a documentary you’re going to want to invite your mates over to watch with some beers and a bowl of popcorn. But what an awesome project to have for yourself.
It’d be like the ultimate 21st Century memory box.
If I think about how much my life is going to change even in five years it’s pretty extreme. I’m suddenly getting to the age where my friends are getting married settling down. It pains me to say it but eventually my party days will be numbered (or at least dramatically lessened) why not capture the transition?
And so. I’m going to try it.So far I have done 4 days, and it’s not been easy
to remember to capture the moment. But I’m liking the process and I’m sure that it will become more habitual as time goes on. It definitely makes me want to try and live each day in the most interesting way I can.
So, what do you think? A interesting way to capture your memories or perhaps a tedious waste of time?
Go check out the video yourself and tell me what you reckon. I found that it divides people.
Peace
xxx
For Cesar Kuriyama’s website click here
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