30 Days Being a Civilian Body Camera

Sunday, July 17, 2016

In light of recent, and not so recent, events in the U.S. I am embarking on an experiment, a durational act of protest, a consideration of camera technology as it is being used in precarious and often violent instances to bare witness and document a first hand recording of what is being considered Truth. The body camera has become a tool for civilians and the police alike, with the only purpose to capture events without a imposing a subjectivity.

I will wear a recording body camera for the next 30 days, documenting every movement I make in the public realm. The camera will be dismounted and powered off while in my home, other private residences, and in the place where I work. Every night I will post the video unedited to this blog as a document of my experiences as a civilian, as a woman, as a brown body wearing a body camera. I will include a link to texts that I am reading while being recorded. These texts will provide a context for what is being documented, and will have a relation to self surveillance, protest, new technologies, the #Black Lives Matter movement, and any other subject relating to what it means to be a body on the streets in this present moment.

I have no expectations, only questions