Alberto Frigo

Alberto Frigo (born 21 July 1979 in Asiago) is regarded as an early proponent of lifelogging.^[1] He is known for having photographed every object his right hand has used since September 24 2003. Continuosly documenting 18 aspects of his life, Frigo intends to create a Rosetta Stone of time.^[2] The work is public at http://2004-2040.com.

The most extreme example of self-tracking,^[3] Frigo is the only known person to have digitally documented his life manually and for over thirteen years.^[4][5][6] Frigo's life project differs from lifelogging, Quantified Self and other forms of self-tracking technologies using sensors and algorithms to reduce the users' effort. Using no automation, Frigo solely relies on his human faculties to document his life. ^[7]

Early Life and Education

Alberto Frigo was born in Asiago, a Cimbri minority group in the Italian alps. From an early age he lived in Canada, United States, the Netherlands and lastly in Sweden where, at the age of 24, on September 24 2003, he started photographing every object his right hand used in order to keep track of his activities. In this respect, Frigo started lifelogging months earlier than the father of lifelogging Gordon Bell, who started wearing his camera only in 2004.^[8]

While working as a media art teacher for various institutions in Sweden, in 2009 Frigo moved to China where he taught at Tongji University and later he moved to the United States where he worked as a project leader at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon returning to Europe, in 2014 Frigo bought a three hectars property near his native town in the Italian alps where he is planning the building of a cathedral to show the results of his 36 years project.

On-going Work

Since 2003, Alberto Frigo has embarked on an ambitious project, 2004-2040, to create a complete yet interpretable record of the reality experienced by a human being of the new millennium.^[9][10][11]

Starting with tracking everything his right (dominant) hand has used,^[12] he’s slowly added on different tracking and documentation projects. By now he tracks 6 aspects of himself (e.g. his activities, his dreams, the songs he recognizes etc.), 6 aspects of the reality around him (e.g. the public places where he seats, the trash he finds on the side-walk, the people he meets etc.) and 6 aspects of the weather (e.g. the intensity of the wind, the temperature, the shapes he recognizes in clouds etc.).^[13] Keeping the focus on himself and his surrounding has helped him connect to himself and the world around him.^[14]

Exhibitions

Regarded as today's On Kawara,^[15] since the beginning of the project in 2003 Frigo has exhibited his work in various venues. At this point of time an increasingly bigger museum space is needed to display his work. In 2040, a 36 by 36 feet wall alone will be needed to display 36 years of photographing every object his right hand has used.

• 

  2006: OK Centrum, Linz

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  2009: Art Museum, Uppsala

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  2015: Science Gallery, Dublin

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  2015: MAK, Frankfurt

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  2016: Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg

Thought

Frigo differentiates from common lifeloggers - he does not automate the process of capturing, organizing and retrieving his lifelog, but he accomplishes this process manually. By "becoming both the sensor and the algorithm", programming his own behavior, Frigo avoids the privacy implications related to automatic lifelogging turning his operation into what can be defined lifestowing.^[16]

In a book on lifestowing Frigo most notably confuted the Derridean notion of the archive as a form of power. Looking at older etymologies, he has come to the masoretic meaning of the word tebah which relates to precarious forms of archive such as Moses basket. In his book Frigo discusses tebahism as an effortfull stowing of reality. His historical examples are: Jacopo Pontormo's diary, Ferdiand Cheval's ideal palace, Dziga Vertov's film, Janina Turek's diaries, Vivian Maier's boxes and George Perec's novels but also relatively unknown tebahists such as Danielle Roberts, Morris Villarroel and Jacek Smolicki. After conducting reception studies in a barn in the alps, Frigo concluded that tebahism is a form of syncretism and, in line with Marshal McLuhan's thinking, it is an ark stowed by marginal individuals to overcome the crisis characteristic of every new technological paradigm.

Facts

As of 18 May 2014, among other self-tracking projects he daily conducts, Frigo had documented:^[14]

• 295.032 activities by photographing the objects his right hand uses
• 12.367 dreams,
• 5.444 songs that he heard and recognized
• 629 portraits of new acquaintances
• 286 square meters of discarded objects picked from the sidewalk
• 1.513 news of casualties
• 15.661 films of public spaces where he seats
• 7.568 drawings of ideas
• 2.763 recordings of thoughts while walking alone
• 1.704 shapes of clouds

Notable Work

Below is a link to Frigo's 36 years long project in which 36 projects are presented:

• 2004-2040

See also

• Dymaxion Chronofile
• Erkki Kurenniemi
• Tehching Hsieh
• On Kawara
• Roman Opalka
• Ferdinand Cheval
• Vivian Maier
• Janina Turek
• George Perec
• Dziga Vertov

References