Data collection tools have given us ways to track and visualize our lives as never before, especially when they’re often lived in front of a screen. Using an application-logging program called Tapper, artist Marcin Ignac recorded every application, click, and keystroke on his computer for two and a half years. From there, he created Every Day Of My Life, a series of abstract images that show what he was doing at any given moment. Each line represents one day, and each block’s color represents the app that was in the foreground at the moment.
Two and a half years of one man’s computing life, visualized in gorgeous prints
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
At a broad scale, you can see the frequency of concentration on any single task, as well as the shift in when Ignac is online (black periods represent time that the computer is off.) Other images show his mouse clicks or keyboard use. An exhibit of prints was shown in May at the Click Festival in Denmark, but the full gallery can be seen on Flickr or Ignac’s site.
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