When we are in public space, whether we realize it or not, we are among people who are busy with their gadgets, be it a cellphone, tablet, or laptop. We may even be one of them. These gadgets are like jewelry-functional, we use them everyday, take advantage of them, and flaunt them. This is personal. One product that started it was a notebook or more familiarly we call it a laptop. This device is a development of the Personal Computer (PC). The word “personal” here needs to be underlined. The PC that we have of course contains our data, what music we hear, what pictures we see, all things that are personal.

Indirectly, our identity is in the device. And nowadays, we can easily carry these things with us everywhere. Let’s analogize the laptop like a house. All the information about us is in the house. When someone tries to come into our house, then naturally he will pass through our living room. The space that connects the outside world (public) with our private world (private). Wallpaper or desktop background is the living room. We have our own reasons why we choose a photo or image as our laptop wallpaper. Because basically the picture reflects about ourselves, the owner of the laptop. We want others to know one side of our lives, the side that opens the way to getting to know us better.

In this project.

I specifically visited places that are usually easy for people to find who are busy with their laptops. At first I observed the activities of these people. Then randomly, I choose people and conduct interviews, to find out what is the story behind the selection of laptop wallpaper images. This gradually opens the way to know more about the person. Not infrequently, some of these objects finally tell a long enough story about their lives. In the end, I ended every interview by asking for a printscreen for their laptop wallpaper and taking a picture of they and their laptop.