Documenting Life

A great part of my life is spent documenting things. I write, I paint, I take photos, I design ads and stories so that they are fit for public consumption. I blog, I write in diaries, both on the computer and in notebooks. I sketch things that I see in my dreams.

I find that as time goes by – and with the progress of technology – that this documentation is increasing. I love going to AdFed conferences, where everyone is whipping out their cameras to take pictures of almost anything. If we're not taking pictures, we're having someone else take our picture in front of something or with someone.

I will be doing a project called 24/7 this coming weekend. A friend and AdFed colleague (founder of AD3), Jim Clark, came up with this brilliant idea as we were running around Atlanta taking photos of what-the-hell-ever. We will choose a day, any 24-hour period, and both take whatever photos we want as we go about our lives normally. Now, I have to say, this is something that I'm excited about! How fun!

What is this innate need we have? Does it correspond to our love and preservation of history? Do we want every single event in our lives put on record for others to view or read about in the future? Is it our need for significance? I bet everyone has a good book in them, directly taken from their life... or at least everyone probably thinks they do.

Sting is one of my favorite musicians ever. I bought his book "Broken Music" and got about 1/4 or more into it before becoming too bored to continue. It's not all about the exciting part of his life, but rather school years. Maybe it will get better if I trudge ahead, but my point is that no matter how cool, famous, talented and interesting you are, does everyone really want to read about the minutia of your life? Probably not. Still, I continue to grow my obsession with documentation.

In the end I think that's why humans love the arts. Art is just a documentation of life, emotions, moments, messages, beauty, pain... all of it is just creative, expressive, documentation... and I am simply becoming more and more of an artist.