Life Logging show, Science Gallery Dublin, runs till March 17th

By @SimonCocking

This show is still on until March 17th. Raising some really interesting questions about surveillance. Who is watching us? We want to be connected 24/7, but at the same time this means we are making data available to third parties to use for their own ends. There are many events still on over the duration of the exhibition, see here for details . The talk last week by Hasan Elahi, @hasanmelahi, a US citizen, artist, professor and FBI terrorist suspect was really interesting, and entertaining too!

LIFELOGGING: DO YOU COUNT? invites visitors to explore one of the remaining frontiers of data science: themselves.

Is it possible to measure the intangible things that really matter: love, beauty, satisfaction, mindfulness? Does a future filled with sensors and surveillance mean the end of privacy? If you could measure everything, would you? Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin today launched LIFELOGGING: DO YOU COUNT? a new exhibition that examines the different technologies, opinions, and research questions that are emerging as lifelogging moves from early-adopter to everyday.

Part of Science Gallery Dublin’s ‘Lab in the Gallery’ series, LIFELOGGING reveals the people behind in-depth data gathering and the ways in which we are tracking and sharing our personal information. The exhibition combines installations with real research projects and weekly residencies that the visitors will be contributing to. Highlights include:

• A residency from co-curator of LIFELOGGING renowned lifelogger Nicholas Felton (The Feltron Reports, designer of the Facebook Timeline)
• Images of the artifact used by the main hand by Alberto Frigo, an artist who has photographed every single object his right hand has held since 24th of September 2003
• Prototypes that speculate about where lifelogging might go in the future, including a headstone that quantifies and displays your social media stats at your time death by Karl Toomey (Synth Eastwood)
• A series of portraits of lifeloggers in their natural habitats including captain of the Irish Rugby Team
• A hand-written medical notebook that charts the vitals of an Irish man over the last 11 years
• Research experiments from lifelogging expert Cathal Gurrin (DCU INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics)
• Alan Kwan’s Bad Trip, an immersive interactive system that enables visitors to navigate the artist’s memories and mind using a game controller
• Two former Disney Imagineers, who invented new rides, technology and products for the Walt Disney Company before embarking on a new career as design duo Alex Rothera & James Krahe
• A skull radio that allows you to listen in total silence, by sending sound waves through your teeth

A technological convergence over the past few years has resulted in the number of sensors in the average smartphone significantly increasing. What was exciting only a year ago may be redundant only 18 months from now. The speed of innovation seems to be increasing, but so is society’s ability to adapt, debate, and design codes of conduct around these new technologies. These 21st century gadgets are just one more addition to the diaries, libraries, medical records, and census data that humans have been recording for thousands of years.

LIFELOGGING: DO YOU COUNT? The full list of exhibits and lab residencies for can be found at dublin.sciencegallery.com/lifelogging.