For nearly a decade, every January, beginning of a new year I make a video to remind me of the year gone by. It’s made of one second clips (1 second per day) I film through the year. I don’t always remember to take them. Especially this year, many of the days under the COVID lockdowns and quarantines have merged into one with whole weeks gone missing. But even with missed days and seconds, it’s been a fantastic way to look back in time.
Many of us navigate a day through a constant stream of information, the news, updates from friends, meetings, deadlines, shopping lists, reading lists etc. Reducing a whole day to a second can be oddly liberating. Personally, it helps to place a messy year in my head, highlight what I enjoyed and valued, forgotten moments. It also helps to reflect on memorable things left out of the seconds. They say creativity is subtraction. The benefits of subtraction wisely certainly extend to the non-creative parts of our lives, to help organize our thoughts and days.
For nearly a decade, every January, beginning of every year I make a video to remind me of the year gone by. It’s made of one second clips (1 second per day) I film through the year. I don’t always remember to take them. Especially this year, many of the days under the COVID lockdowns and quarantines have merged into one with whole weeks gone missing. But even with missed days and seconds it’s been a fantastic way to look back in time.
Many of us navigate a day through a constant stream of information, the news, updates from friends, meetings, deadlines, shopping lists, reading lists etc. Reducing a whole day to a second can be oddly liberating. Personally, it helps to place a messy year in my head, highlight what I enjoyed and valued, forgotten moments. It also helps to reflect on memorable things left out of the the seconds. They say creativity is subtraction. The benefits of subtraction wisely certainly extend to the non-creative parts of our lives, to help organize our thoughts and days.
Today, that video takes me back a year ago to the new year in Valencia, Spain.
Happy new year everyone! I wish you to make it happier than the one before.
