My talk from SXSW Interactive 2014 What happens when you take a photo of every fragment of your life? All those micro moments that are recorded and analysed. Has your visual existence been enhanced? What would you learn from your signature photographic aesthetic? This talk will explore the notion that an 'unexamined (visual) life is not worth living'. My talk will explore the implications of what mainstream visual life logging means for individuals, culture and photography. The talk will use data from my trial of a leading visual life logging wearable camera. I will mix quantified self analytics with ‘qualified self’ data to interpret my visual record and its signature aesthetic. I will contrast the culture of visual life logging with the rituals of analogue photographic albums to gain a better understanding of how we are changing the way we preserve and narrate memories and share experiences across the social graph.

1. How is visual life logging changing
photography?
by David McNamara
08/02/14
@deemac99
#sigvisuals

2. The past is a story we tell ourselves about ourselves

4. 100
Source: Eric Kessels
1,000,000+

5. Visual life logging: the act of visually recording your life

6. Source: National Media Museum

7. Eugene Atget
Vivian Maier
Master collectors
Source: Atget / Walker Evans / Vivian Maier
Walker Evans

8. “An unexamined life is not
worth living.”
Socrates, 470 – 399BC

9. “learning by being”
Source: Steve Mann in ‘Lifeloggers The Movie’ by Narrative

10. Quantified (Objective)
Make better decisions
Science (truth)
Art (meaning)
Reach higher goals
Visual
life
logging
Create meaning
Find insights
Qualified (Subjective)

13. Capturing unguarded private moments

14. Averaged 687
photos per day
Total 49k photos
Total 58 days
#Commute
#Food
#Ceiling
#Nappies
#desk

15. Reflection
Recall
Retrieval
Life logging is hard work
Source: Inspired by Cathal Gurrin
Reminiscence

16. Passive
Active
Un-composed
Composed
Objective
Subjective
Authorless
Narrative

17. Source: @deemac99

18. 1 trillion+
photos will be
taken in 2014
Source: Yahoo / Ellen DeGeneres

19. “…the desire to photograph the
whole world is not an attempt to
recover or create memories…
It is a need to affirm experience as
expressible and to create an aura of
talismanic protection.
Sometimes to gain that affirmation
you have to give up pursuing it.”
Will Steacy
Source: Photographs Not Taken, Will Steacy

20. “…finding highlights key
differences between people’s
memory and the camera’s
“memory” and suggests that the
additional attentional and
cognitive processes engaged by
this focused activity can eliminate
the photo-taking-impairment
effect.”
Taking photos can impair your ability to remember…
Source: Linda Henkel, Fairfield University, Point and Shoot Memories, 2014

21. …but can digital archives make memories more ‘true’?
Source: Scott Fraser

22. We need a Search Engine For The Self
Source: Memory Mesh: Cognitive Psychology Linking for Ememories / Cathal Gurrin

23. Expressive & Intimate
Source: Yang Yong, Fancy in Tunnel

24. The New Aesthetic
Source: John Rafman / 9 Eyes

25. Explorable Mindscapes
Source: Kwan Alan

26. Source: Chino Otsuka / Imagine Finding Me

27. Source: ‘Her’ Warner Bros

28. Personal AI agents
Source: Cognea

29. Curation can save us all!

31. data
context
creativity
Algorithmic Photography

32. From real
EXIF
data…
Source: @deemac99
…to
ememory
meta data

34. Life Curation Agent
The
Life
Cura,on
Agent
is
your
complete
visual
life
logging
pla9orm.
It
can
integrate
with
all
your
tracking
devices,
auto
curate
your
life
and
enhance
your
life
stories.
Choose
your
cura,on
avatar
type
that
will
learn
how
to
explore
and
find
the
paBerns
of
significance
in
your
archive.
Source: @deemac99 / Creative Commons

35. Source: @deemac99 / Creative Commons

36. Find your halo moments
Source: @deemac99

37. Source: @deemac99 / Creative Commons

38. From libraries…
…to exhibitions.

39. Algorithmic Photography is a new
lens for a new world

40. Log life not data

41. Thankyou
@deemac99
#sigvisuals

42. Slide 2 - http://sploid.gizmodo.com/scientists-watch-how-the-brain-makes-memories-for-the-f-1509923347/@barrett
Slide 3 - http://www.embeddedmetadata.org/social-media-test-procedure.php
Slide 4 - http://www.nomadarte.com/
Slide 5 - http://www.exporevue.com/artistes/fr/radisic/act2.html
Slide 6/7 - http://fqwimages.com/about-myself/
Slide 10 - http://phototrails.net/bangkok/
Slide 11 - http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/is-facebook-making-us-forget-study-shows-that-taking-pictures-ruin-memories-8994917.html
Slide 13 - http://selfiecity.net/#findings
Socrates - http://www.emersonkent.com/history_notes/socrates.htm
Atget Organ Grinder- http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/283261
Real Life Instagram - http://reallifeinstagram.com/
Imagine Finding Me - http://chino.co.uk/
Steve Mann / Lifeloggers The Movie - http://vimeo.com/61947763
Karl Baden - http://vimeo.com/user6454056
Kodak - http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmediamuseum/
Vivian Maier - http://www.vivianmaier.com/
Apple Mood Ad Serving - http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/01/23/apple-investigating-mood-based-ad-delivery-system
New Aesthetic - http://jonrafman.com/
Point and Shoot Memories - http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/04/0956797613504438.abstract
Molecular Basis of Memory - http://www.einstein.yu.edu/news/releases/968/watching-molecules-morph-into-memories/
Neural Networks - http://cs.brown.edu/people/tld/note/blog/13/07/26/
Memory Mesh - http://hma.dcu.ie/HMA/Home.html
Search Engine For The Self - http://hma.dcu.ie/HMA/Home.html
Lisa Congdon - http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/lisa-congdon-photography-journal#
Eric Kessels - http://www.kesselskramer.com/
PhotoTrails - http://phototrails.net/
Exhibition - http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2010/09/hangme.html
Jenny Davis - http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/03/13/the-qualified-self/
Richard Billingham - http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/billingham.shtml
I trillion photos - http://bgr.com/2013/12/24/how-many-selfies-were-taken-in-2013/