User:Mathijs van Oosterhoudt/projectprop2

Camera Induco

Introduction

'To behold, use or perceive any extension of ourselves in technological forms is necessarily to embrace it. By continuously embracing technologies, we relate ourselves to them as servo-mechanisms.' - Marshall Mcluhan

'We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.' - John M. Culkin

Tools impose certain restraints upon us when we use them. These restraints shape the outcome of the work we attemp to create with them, but also our way of thinking, both about the tool, its result and everything around us. We don't actively shape our tools with what we want them to do to us in mind, but rather by what we think we want them to do for us.

Instead of shaping our tool based on how we think we want our tool to behave, my goal is to shape the tool based on how I want it to shape its user, whilst researching how culture and society influence the creation and shaping of tools.

The way this tool will shape and influence the user is by making him / her 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. The goal is not to restrain, control and limit the user with the process of the shaping, but to do the opposite: To empower them by bringing these things to light.

Simultaneously it focuses on the act of using the tool, rather than the general focus on the end result. A painting from Pollock references the act of painting itself, it's not the end-goal that matters but rather the act of getting there. How can we apply these thoughts to for example the near-instantaneous result of a camera? How much is it the camera that shapes us as our tool compared to that of the photo shaping us as the end-result of the process?

Can the act of using the tool stand on its own and thereby consciously shape the user?

Relation to previous practice

How does your research connect to previous projects you have done? Remember to briefly explain or describe related projects as the external is not familiar with your work.

It is useful to address the points raised by tutors in the feedback from your Self-assessment at the end of trimester 3 and to draw on your 'essay on method' written in trimester 3.

Button Geocam

Relation to a larger context

Meaning practices or ideas that go beyond the scope of your personal work. Write briefly about other projects or theoretical material which share an affinity with your project. For example, if you are researching urban interventions, you might talk about Situationist approaches to psychogeography, urban tactical media and activist strategies of reclaiming the streets. Or, if you want to explore the way data is tracked, you might touch upon the politics of data mining by referencing concerns laid out by the Electronic Frontier or highlight theoretical questions raised by Wendy Chun or others. (Keep in mind that we are *not* expecting well formulated conclusions or persuasive arguments in the proposal phase. At this juncture, it's simply about showing an awareness of a broader context, which you will later build upon as your research progresses.)

Practical steps

Describe how you will go about conducting your research through reading, writing and practice. In other words, through a combination of these approaches, you will explore questions or interests you have laid out in your general introduction. In this section you can help us understand how your project will come together on a practical level and talk about possible outcome(s). Of course, the outcome(s) may change as your research evolves, but it's important to have some idea of how your project might come together as a whole.

Researching the history of how camera restraints have shaped us, our view of the world and the technology of the camera will allow me to use these notions as a starting point.

By exaggerating, changing or adapting these same techniques as have influenced us in the past, I hope to create new cameras that can bring this to light. By continuously reiterating and using the camera I hope to gain an understanding of how my own camera influences the user, building further upon it and continuously refining it or trying new cameras.

References

A list of references (Remember that dictionaries, encyclopedias and wikipedia are not references to be listed. These are starting points which should lead to more substantial texts and practices.) As with your previous essays, the references need to be formatted according to the Harvard method.) See: http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/A_Guide_to_Essay_Writing#The_Harvard_System_of_referencing

Feel free to include any visual material to substantiate, illustrate or elucidate your proposal. For example use images to reference your work or that of others.