At 7 a.m, I would leave my house and go to a nearby passport photo studio. The camera man will use a white background, I will seat on a stool, and I will face the camera while he tells me if to adjust or not. I would sit the and remain invisible, while his screen showed and empty chair.
This is what I would test. No face on the screen, no picture, no evidence for a form. I could continue to explain myself throughout the day, but all those expectations would sound like a lie.
Then what I will do next is to visit one of those offices where before entering, the security will ask for an ID or ask people to write down their names in a book. I could hold the pen to write my name, what is is going to be the only evidence that I had passed through is my signature. The column would be blank and the mark would not belong to anyone, even when I am standing right there.
When it is evening or afternoon time like this, I would go back to my house and see through the things that confirms my life, my clothes, my passport, my shoes, my work space, my architectural drawings, projects I am yet to finish.... All these things would still be there, even if no one can see who it all belongs to.
That twenty hours of my invisible moments would be spent testing and finding out how much of life requires proof that I exist. What most of us usually say is that being seen is as if it mean attention. But when we think deeper, it is more basic. When there is no face that anyone can recognise, even to establish a simple truth becomes something very difficult. When I am visible again after that moment, I will go back to that studio to take that visible picture and think less about how I looked, and more about how easily a person can disappear from the record. This is really something I will like to try out if it is possible.
Thank you for reading.
