Perfect Flosser

I am enamored by Richard Linklater’s approach to filmmaking, particularly his dedication to documenting change over time in movies such as Boyhood (2014), and the “Before” trilogy (1995, 2004, and 2013). In these movies, Linklater films over decades, using the same actors so their aging and growth is real. It’s captivating and touches the same emotional notes we experience when looking at old photographs: it is astonishing to see change that accumulates incrementally condensed into something you can consume in the space of minutes or hours.

I am interested in capturing the same accumulation of small changes, but with an eye to illuminating behavior rather than physical changes due to aging. For example, consider that every single pair of shoes you’ve owned in your lifetime is still here on the planet today. What would that look like if we could collect them and have a family reunion? Likewise, every toothbrush you’ve used and every condom, every plastic fork and every straw. Perfect flosser is an attempt to quantify what a year of dental floss use might look like for a “perfect flosser” (if those exist!) who uses one strand each day. It contains 365 pieces of PTFE floss hanging freely from “treeless” polypropylene paper. Eventually, I will make a collection of these that illustrate a lifetime’s use of floss — an attempt to quantify one way in which an individual’s environmental impact can be measured over time.