For my media diary, I chose to track all of my consumption of media that were readable or audible artifacts intended to be seen or heard outside of 1-1 communications (i.e. iMessages were not counted, but email newsletters were). From there, I translated each hour (roughly) of my media consumption into a one-count movement fundamental, so that each day could be represented with three eight-counts of dance. I chose to perform my dance to the accompaniment of only a metronome to keep the focus on the movements, which are encoded as follows:
- Gazing down = sleep time
- Gazing up = awake but not actively mediated, such as while sitting in class, skiing with friends, or just talking to real live people!
- Head movements = passive listening or reading, such as background music / TV or ads in the T station
- Arm movements = voluntary, entertainment-focused listening or reading, such as scrolling through Twitter or listening to a podcast
- Leg movements = less voluntary, utilitarian listening or reading, such as looking up walking directions or reading a restaurant menu
- Movements of both arms indicate media multi-tasking, such as watching Netflix while checking Instagram
Finally, I sped up my video into a more digestible loop. I chose not to represent my mix of digital vs. printed media consumption because it was almost all digital, except for on day 1 which was also my phone-free day, but wish I had found a creative way to incorporate that into my visuals as well.
For the Excel lovers, I have included my choreography spreadsheet for reference.
