Posted on Monday, May 14th, 2012 by Natalia Farbiarz
What do you want to do before you die? This website – ‘Before I Die I Want To’ collects the wishes people share on a polaroid: the things I want to do before I die. It’s poignant, emotional and one of the more interesting websites we’ve seen this year!
Before I Die I Want To – It’s usually said that wishes are not supposed to be shared. If you wish for something when you blow out the birthday candles or see a shooting star – and tell anyone what you asked for – it won’t come true. But what about goals, challenges? They are a wish for an accomplishment… and there’s no better way to take responsibility for them than sharing. Based on the idea that “the human connection of making a promise to someone and understanding that someone cares, notices, and expects something is motivational”, this website comes up with an artistic way to achieve a lifetime goal: What do you want do before you die?
Several factors inspired this project brought to the web by the Brooklyn-based artist Nicole Kenney, who with ‘Before I Die I Want To’ intends to explore both universal and intimate, personal themes. On the one hand, ‘Before I Die I Want To’ is particularly poignant given the recent announcement by Polaroid that they are to discontinue their products as a result of the prevalence of digital photography. On the other, Kenney expects that by asking people, “what do you want to do before you die?”, and asking them to publicly publish their wishes online, will motivate them to actually achieve their stated life goals, by making a promise to themselves and the photographer.
You can’t actually contribute to the project – it doesn’t appear to be a social wall that people can add to. But as a library of human experiences and wishes, it’s incredibly interesting to explore as a reader. Nicole asked the ‘Before I Die I Want To’ question to people from the United States, India and a hospice, so there’s a real interest in comparing the life goals and wishes of people from extremely different perspectives. From “Driving a car across the country” to “being 20 years old again”, every desire is as unique as the person who stated it. Don’t miss this chance to feel inspired by other people wishes… you’ll probably find yourself thinking about your own.
