Cesar Kuriyama's One Second Everyday Project

Imagine that you are asked to record a single second every day, and that you had to do this for an entire year. How would you decide what to document, how would you record it, what would your completed record of those 365 seconds look like, and what would be its purpose?

Cesar Kuriyama, a computer graphics artist and film director who also has taught computer animation at New York University, Harvard University, and Pratt Institute, is undertaking to identify his approximately 6 minutes via his One Second Everyday project, which he initiated on his 30th birthday, after deciding to take a year off work to pursue creative and personal endeavors. As Kuriyama notes in his introductory notes to the video about his project, what he's doing is no longer just "a fun way to chronicle my year off" but "a catalyst that['s] forced me to reevaluate how I approach my day-to-day life. . . It has become a perpetual reminder to wake up and seize the day." His plans include creating an iPhone app that allows anyone to record a second in a day.

Kuriyama recently "auditioned" his idea for TED, which had invited its followers around the world to submit one-minute videos exploring the TED2012 Full Spectrum theme and describing an idea worth sharing. Out of hundreds of one-minute videos sent to TED, Kuriyama's idea was one of 17 selected as a finalist. All the audition finalists (the linked list is here) presented their TEDTalks live in New York City on May 24 (the introduction to auditions begins at approximately 14:37 minutes; Kuriyama appears at 1:45:38).

An interview with Kuriyama on the TED blog is found here.

Summary of May 24 Presentations