Thirty Days of Smiles
This project deals with the relationship between photography and video. I tried to work out a way of relating time to the emotional display we perceive in photographs. Something seemingly genuine and happy like a smile can take on different meanings when dragged out for an extended period. The project was not directly looking for a meaning in the smile, rather I focused on trying to seperate the reading of time+moving pictures and still imagery. We could have been frowning and achieved similar results, but this seemed a bit more positive.
The project guidelines were as follows :
- create one video per day for thirty days
- each video should be approximately 5 minutes long
- the smile should be a primary focus the video
- we do not talk about the project once video capture commences
Here are some of our afterthoughts.
- By the end of the thirty days it seemed like time had flown by. However, viewing/making a per day video makes it appear much longer.
- Smiling became significantly easier as we progressed.
- When I look back at my videos I can't help by smile!
- I either fixed by gaze upon a distant object/thought or looked directly into the camera.
- I enjoyed going off into my own head during the videos, thus organizing thoughts or allowing myself to unconsciously compute daily/weekly happenings.
- I think it's cool to look back at all the past month and realize it was just a day by day process that I was able to smile through.
- Early on I realized I wanted to remain relatively still throughout the video. I really like the idea that the smile and time are the only active elements.
- I realized I can make a better effort to more fully display my emotions. I'm not sure if I always smile as much or as energetically as I should.
- I like my version of a smile.
- Occasionally, I would become anxious about still having to make (x) number of videos
- If anything, making videos presents a nice dose of reality and self awareness.
- You make smiling look like the easiest thing in the world.
- It was a lot harder to smile than I expected.
- I didn't really focus on anything. I'm sure a lot of my time was spent thinking about how it looked like I was barely smiling (and making myself try to smile "bigger").
- I realized I spend the majority of my time at home in two places.
- I had no idea what I looked like when I work, I kind of like it.
- It hasn't changed how I look at my own smile. If anything, I like it even less.
- Watching myself for so long led to more negative than positive thoughts. Yesterday all I could think about is how my one eyelid is bigger than the other (eczema makes it puffy and weird).
- Five minutes didn't seem so long after a while.
- Doing this when I was sick was rough. Took so much willpower.
- Overall I'm proud of myself for posting so much recorded time of myself online. Not that anyone is necessarily looking at it, but the possibility is there. I don't put up 99% of pictures of myself because I think I look gross.
- I think my smiles are best with animals around.
You can view the videos an archive of the videos in the Thirty Days of Smiles Vimeo Group.