I•AM•I

I•AM•I

I am I because
my little dog knows me
– Gertrude Stein

I•AM•I data portrait showing weight loss

With I•AM•I we began exploring portraiture using personal information configured from an individual’s Fitbit data and an online emotional survey. We modeled I•AM•I and the process after the tradition of portrait painting. We were thinking deeply about the role of the artist and their subject. I•AM•I is a further development to instruction-based art dependent on how the subject interacts with the portrait’s program.

I•AM•I text messages its subjects
The sitting takes two to four weeks during which time the data is collected and displayed in real time. At the end of the sketch period, the subject can commit their sketch to a portrait using a mobile interface. The tapestry software transforms their information into a continuously changing abstract representation of their activities over time. It is an abstraction that can be read depicting steps, distance, weight gain and loss and a person’s moods. I•AM•I is in the public collections of the 21C museum, the University of Wyoming and in private collections.

Materials: Woven fiber optic thread panel, RGB LEDs and custom hardware, Mac mini computer, UDP, aluminum and brass frame, Plexiglass, monofilament, Fitbit watch and Aria scale, cleet. 23 x 38 x 5 inches.

the twisted sinews underlying the work...