INSIGHT:

Spike Jonze’s cult-favourite ‘Being John Malkovich’ explores the surreal construct of experiencing life through someone else’s eyes. The inventive storyline saw the film’s characters gaining access to mind of real-life actor John Malkovich.

Almost 20 years on, with the rise of social networks and our need to ‘share’ with others, the film’s themes have crept into the real world. Our private lives have shifted into the public arena at the rate of 3 million Facebook posts per minute. ‘Life imitating art’ if you will.

People, particularly ‘younger’ people, are surrendering ‘private life’, in order to share what we experiences with others. With no sign of this trend slowing down, it’s not too hard to foresee a future where we don’t bother to turn the camera off, and share everything in an ‘always on’, 24/7 share cycle. What would this look like?

IDEA:

Recreate ‘Being John Malkovich’ in a modern context by rigging John Malkovich with a head-cam and broadcast the live stream feed to Facebook for an extended period of time.

EXERCUTION:

Malkovich would wear a small video camera on his head and stream is life live, giving a audience a first person view of his every waking (and sleeping) moment. The project could run for 112 hours straight, referencing the films original 112 minute run time.

He would share his daily life as an Actor, Fashion designer swell as mundane things like eating breakfast and going for walks.

This project will obviously be good for John Malkovich, and bring a new audience to the original film, but the concept is really an exploration of technology’s influence on ‘public’ and ‘private’ spaces, using a pop culture reference with a similar theme.

As well as being streamed live on Facebook, the entire ‘live movie’ could be broadcast in a gallery space.