User:Mathijs van Oosterhoudt/questions
'We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.' - Father John Culkin
My graduation project has a specific physical form: It's a camera. Cameras are tools that impose certain restraints upon us, but that we take for granted (As wit many tools). These restraints shape the outcome of the work, but also our way of thinking, both about the tool as well as it's result. Instead of shaping our tool based on how we think we want our tool to behave, I will shape our tool based on how I want it to shape it's user.
The way the camera will shape and influence the user is by making it aware of the inherent restraints and impact of our tools on our society; By employing exactly what it is that I want to talk about. At the same time it tackles the idea that the photographer is the author, to what degree does this hold true if the photographer is not the one to decide when or how to take the photograph? If we would be directed to stand in one place, aim at another place, take the photo at a specific time, would it be a photo made by the photographer or by the instructions? One could make a case that if the instructions are made by the operator of the camera, that this question is irrelevant. But what happens if the operator is not who imposes the rules?
- How conscience are we of how our tools shape us?
- If we shape the tools and the tools shape us,
instead of shaping a tool without taking the latter in mind, can we shape a tool designed not for it's use but for how it shapes us?
- How do the technical limitations or specifications (Inherent to the tool) influence the final result made with said tool?
- How conscious are we about picking our restraints (Inherent to the tool)?
- How can one put very obvious restraints on a camera without annoying the user, but instead, empowering the user?
- How different are artistic restraints from restraints put on us through technology (i.e. smile detection)?
- Where is the line between the camera being the author and the photographer being the author,
if the camera determines when a photo can be taken or how it can be taken?
- If "We shape the tools and the tools shape us" then "We take the photo and the photo shapes us"?
- How do sociopolitical restraints affect the designing of the tool?