One Line a Day for Five Years

Caroline Suttlehan
Nov 5 · 4 min read

I’ve been writing one line every day for over 5 years now. This journal contains over 1,800 daily entries or data points (365 days x 5 years) about the first half of my twenties (ages 21–26).

It covers the time period during which I first fell in love, explored a new religion, started therapy and medication, joined the work force, accepted my sexuality, and developed as an artist. It was my development as an artist that largely fueled my recent decision to take a “sabbatical” to pursue personal projects and research interests full time.

I spent the first few months (Jun-Aug) of my “sabbatical” living in Europe, removed from familiar spaces and routines, in order to break some old habits and form new ones. During this time, I also built a database of artists to learn from, an ever-expanding reading list to dive into, and a portfolio of recent work with which to apply to an art residency.

Dongjoo, hey it’s me, Sion

I’m now a week into that residency in Buenos Aires at Proyecto ‘ace, alongside two other artists, one from South Korea, the other from Wales . On the first day, we presented past work as well as our residency project proposals. I figured I’d tell you all more or less what I told them:

My residency project is centered around my line a day journal which I’m using as a dataset from which to create a series of visualizations. To date, I have transcribed all journal entries into Google Spreadsheets and manually coded each entry for 1–2 of the following categories: mental health, relationships/sexuality, career, inspirations/quotes, religion/spirituality, art/creative pursuits, and physical health.

I then ran the data set through a sentiment analysis tool to extract sentiment scores, magnitude scores, subjectivity/objectivity classifications, key words, entity identifications (people, place, organizations), and scores for 13 particular emotions including anger, boredom, emptiness, enthusiasm, fear, hate fun, joy, love, relief, sadness, surprise, and worry.

What is already [painfully] apparent in the dataset, is how clearly my early twenties was a time of transition and identity creation. It’s effectively a play-by-play of my efforts to navigate romantic relationships, define my values and convictions, build confidence in the workplace, maintain and repair family connections, reconfigure my priorities, and reprogram parts of myself. It’s filled with life experiences deeply personal to me, though not unique, like falling in love with my best friend, struggling with my physical appearance, and questioning my religious beliefs, to name just a few.

In the process of recording these events, feelings, and thoughts, I’m doing what I suspect we all do whether or not we maniacally keep a 5-year journal: I’m telling myself a story about who I am as a way to make meaning of my life.

With much-needed guidance from the residency team here, I quickly realized that this data set is far too vast to be wholly addressed in a single exhibit with a November 20 deadline. So instead I’m looking at this residency project as the first of many in which I’ll use my personal archives to create data-informed artwork.

In the short term, however, the particular series I’m developing at the residency is focused around a study of time as informed by emotional data.

The result of 4 espressos and a morning spent brainstorming

Some questions I’m exploring at the moment: Can I rework typical time-telling mechanisms (clocks, sand timers, pendulums) to be powered by data from my journal? What if I apply the concept of relativity to calculate time dilation over the five years by substituting the magnitude or sentiment scores for gravity? If I’m to say that certain periods of my life carried more weight/significance than others, can I visualize a new measurement of time using existing measurements of “true” time? Could I, for example, design a series of clocks that provides a different notion of time — one informed by experiences and emotions?

Regardless of the final product created during this month, I’m hoping it’s the start of an art practice in which the process is rooted in data and vulnerability and the product is authentic connection with others.

The exhibition is in three weeks and is open to the public. If you have any thoughts, comments, or ideas I would love to hear them (caroline.suttlehan at gmail.com). And if you’d like updates on the development of the project, you can follow me on Instagram — which I’m slowly learning how to use…

Cheers friends,

CS

A few shots of the residency space | Buenos Aires

Caroline Suttlehan

Written by

On “sabbatical” making stuff | Formerly Senior Associate @ Initiative for a Competitive Inner City | Boston College Alumna

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