Documenting the mundane

I've noticed myself growing more and more interested in documenting things. It feels like a strange desire at times but also quite a natural thing to do. This has been apparent since about the age of eleven when I started writing songs, and I really do mean writing songs. I would have to write down every song I came up with, usually in the form of a lyric sheet with chords dotted above the words, even with the date and time (started and finished) in the corner.

At thirteen I was lucky enough to get a four track tape recorder which I immediately pressed into service by methodically recording all of my previously written songs along with any new ones that came into existence. I am unsure as to how much the documentation part of this process (as opposed to the general creativity of it all) was responsible for the feeling of purpose I got, but I remember being fully aware that making stuff in any way shape or form was a very good thing.



Thankfully this combination of making stuff and documenting stuff has kept me busy ever since. While I was very excited to get my hands on a video camera at age fifteen, my forrays into video were limited, partly due to a lack of editing possibilities (I used to edit in a 'pause button' fashion, mixing music from CDs on the fly) and mostly due to a lack of foresight on my behalf. Years later, with the comfortable ability to drop pictures, audio and video files straight into a computer for simple editing, these other methods of documentation have opened themselves up to me once more and it feels good.