Disziplinarapparat
A self experiment about counting steps
In 2010 the »quantified self« movement came from California, US to Europe. Gadgets like the »Fitbit« which count steps and monitor your daily activities were sold. With this new possibility to track yourself 24 hours with small devices and gather life data about yourself new questions also arose.
What does it mean to monitor yourself permanently and how does it affect the awareness of your body? With a self-experiment, tracking myself with a »fitbit« I tried to find answers.

The experience of tracking myself 24 hours per day showed me the link between measurement and norm. With the interactive installation »Disziplinarapparat« I refer to Michel Foucault’s essay »Discipline and Punish«.
My »Fitbit account« is connected with thermal printers. For every step I do a »schritt« (step) is printed. The waste of data will be collected in a public box.
Discipline »makes« individuals; it is the specific technique of a power that regards individuals both as objects and as instruments of its exercise. It is not a triumphant power…it is a modest, suspicious power, which functions as a calculated, but permanent economy.
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
