The human relationship with the smartphone is an intimate one. The smartphone is a private display in a public space; a one-to-one relationship between person and screen. Even without the anthropomorphization of digital assistants like Siri, an emotional connection exists between user and device. Throughout the day, the user gazes at the phone. Does the phone gaze back? What if it did?

phonelovesyoutoo is an immersive video matrix that captures the artist’s cell phone usage over a period of one month. Over 1000 videos from the phone’s front facing camera are tiled across multiple walls. To create the video, the artist developed an Android application to automatically record video from the front and back camera of the phone every time the phone was in use. Most videos are short: less than 30 seconds to respond to an email or fire off a text message. Longer durations result from activities like reading articles and using the GPS to trek across Los Angeles in rush hour.

Each tile in the matrix captures habits, expressions, and neuroses. With the face in the frame, there is room for little else, but noticeable differences are present: rumpled hair and puffy eyes in the morning, red lipstick for an evening out, wet hair after a shower. The context changes but the face mostly stays the same: it is a blank expression, a concentrating expression, the kind of vacant look reserved only for glowing screens.

Kate Hollenbach (she/they) is an artist and programmer based in San Francisco, California. Her work relates body, physical space, and user interface design to reflect on how mobile devices and networks shape social interactions, habits, and language. She has presented, published, and exhibited work in venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SIGGRAPH, INST-INT, Piksel Festival, and Taper. Kate holds an MFA from UCLA Design Media Arts and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT. She is currently the Education Director at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.