The Drawing Of Our Lives

All Journeys in Berlin 2003 - 2012 (ten year drawing) Daniel Belasco RogersDaniel Belasco Rogers, All Journeys in Berlin 2003 – 2012 (ten year drawing) 2013

Since 2003 (Dan) and 2007 (Sophia), we have recorded every movement we make outside with a GPS. It traces our paths wherever we go, throughout our daily lives and during our travels outside of our home city, Berlin. We are the only people to have such a long record of every movement we make in this way.

You can find more GPS drawings here

Daniel Belasco Rogers. All Points in Berlin 2003-2016. Animation. 1 frame = 1 year

Our motivations and inspirations to begin this practice vary. Dan’s initial impulse was to watch himself learn about Berlin, the city he and Sophia moved to in 2001. In 2007, Sophia stated that she would do it for a year (inspired by Tehching Hsieh’s one year performances) to observe how having a small daughter was affecting her movements. She has continued the daily practice to this day and now does not intend to stop.

The information we collect is used in a variety of ways and informs much of our ongoing and past work, including Narrating our Lines, Five Years of Coming Home, All Our Traces in Berlin 2011, The Re-drawing of everywhere we’ve been in Berlin since 2007 and Knotting Time. Currently, we are working on a performance lecture entitled ‘Together / Apart’.

Recoded Exhibition Installation Shot Peacock Arts 2008Recoded:Landscape and Politics of New Media group exhibition Peacock Arts 2008 Photo: Belasco New

Our prints are sometimes made with a pen plotter or printed with archival inkjet inks on acid-free paper and mounted on Aluminium Dibond. As well as being exhibited in Japan, Brazil and Europe, works are in private collections in the UK and Germany and published in various anthologies and academic publications (for greater detail, see our CV).

Daniel Belasco Rogers All Journeys in Berlin 2004 Akademie Installation Photo: Timo OhlerAll Journeys in Berlin 2004 Daniel Belasco Rogers Giclee Print on Dibond 119 x 84cm Akademie der Künste Photo: Timo Ohler