Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day

TL;DR

The speaker discusses his decision to take a year off work and record one second of his life every day, explaining the purpose and impact of the project.

Transcript

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast So, I'm an artist. I live in New York, and I've been working in advertising for -- ever since I left school, so about seven, eight years now, and it was draining. I worked a lot of late nights. I worked a lot of weekends, and I found myself never having time for all the projects that I wanted to work on... Read More

Key Insights

• 🌟 The power of taking breaks: The speaker was inspired by Stefan Sagmeister's talk on taking a year off every seven years to pursue personal creative projects, leading the speaker to start their own project called "One Second Every Day."
• 📹 Visualizing memories: The project "One Second Every Day" allows the speaker to remember and document their life by recording one second of each day, triggering memories of the other moments from that day as well.
• 🎵 A protest against excessive recording: The project serves as a personal protest against the culture of recording entire events on smartphones, encouraging the speaker to capture a single second to trigger the memory of a particular moment, such as a concert.
• 🚗 Road trip dreams: The speaker fulfilled their lifelong dream of going on a road trip across the U.S. and Canada, an outstanding experience that led them to run out of savings and take on additional work projects in Seattle.
• 👦 Appreciating family time: One of the main reasons for the project was to spend more time with family. The speaker mentions a family emergency that made them realize the importance of recording even the difficult moments.
• 📸 First-person perspective: The speaker focuses on capturing moments as they see them, preferring a first-person point of view with no filters or alterations.
• 🌍 Possibilities of a collective project: The speaker envisions the potential of thousands of people participating in a similar project, with each person having their own interpretation. They also imagine a website where users can explore specific dates and see snippets of people's lives from all over the world. ⏰ Never forgetting a day lived: The speaker emphasizes their desire to never forget any day they have lived, and encourages others to record snippets of their lives to prevent forgetting important moments.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did the speaker come up with the idea for the project "One Second Every Day"?

The speaker was inspired to start the project after watching a TED talk by Stefan Sagmeister called "The power of time off." He decided to take a year off from work to focus on his own creative projects and travel, and "One Second Every Day" became his first project.

Q: What is the purpose of the "One Second Every Day" project?

The purpose of the project for the speaker is to ensure that he doesn't forget the things he has done in the past. He wants to have a visual memory of his life and be able to remember and appreciate each day. It also serves as a personal protest against the culture of recording everything with cell phones, as he believes capturing just one second is enough to trigger memories.

Q: How does the project help the speaker appreciate both the good and bad times in his life?

Recording just one second, even on a really bad day, helps the speaker appreciate the good times as well. It allows him to remember and acknowledge the difficult moments, reminding him that life is not always perfect. By capturing both the good and bad days, he believes it is important to remember and learn from all experiences.

Q: What approach does the speaker take in recording the moments for his project?

The speaker tries to capture the moments as authentically as possible. He avoids using filters and focuses on recording from a first-person perspective, aiming to document the scenes exactly as he sees them with his own eyes. This approach helps him remember what he saw and experienced in a more genuine way.

Q: What possibilities does the speaker see for the future of the "One Second Every Day" project?

The speaker envisions a future where thousands of people are participating in the project, each adding their own perspective to it. He believes that having a platform where users can access and view a stream of people's lives on a specific day from all around the world would be interesting. This project is seen as a way to never forget any day lived and encourages others to record snippets of their lives as well.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The speaker, an artist in New York, decided to take a year off from advertising after being inspired by a TED talk on the power of time off.

• He started a project called "One Second Every Day" where he records one second of his life each day, creating a continuous video that will encapsulate his life.

• The project aims to help him remember his experiences and appreciate both the good and bad days, while also protesting against the culture of constantly documenting everything with smartphones.