iPhone Live is a year long performance by Johannes P Osterhoff which started on June 29th, 2012 and will end on June 29th, 2013.

Each time its home button is pressed an iPhone automatically takes a screenshot of the current app to display a zooming effect. For this performance, I installed two shell scripts on my jailbroken iPhone:

1 The first one duplicates each screenshot so that the files cannot be overwritten the next time the app is minimized.

2 The second one uploads these screens automatically to this site (http://www.iphone-live.net/) and publishes them.

These scripts are executed regularly in the background by means of launch demons.

The performance is an interesting example of how an intimate personal communication device, already used in ‘performative’ ways can essentially becomes public viewing and foreground that activity as performance. The artist retains some degree of control over what his audience see and when by deciding when to screencapture (press his home button) his activity.

All screenshots to date can be see in the archive.

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