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

These themes are identical to that of my essay on the button; my media object for this year. It talks about how we construct the button to what we want it to do, whilst afterwards that technology shapes us in ways we could not have imagined before, even through the most minute changes. By bringing these design choices and their effects to light we're able to use these effects to our advantage, rather than as an exploitation as is often the case (See the chapter on Obfuscation in 'The Retrospective of the Button')

At the same time it relates to the GeoCam project, a camera which instead of taking photographs, searches for relevant photographs to your location and camera orientation, allowing the recycle of existing imagery without need for new ones. It reflects on what we require from our camera and what we expect it to do, whilst questioning the need of the users requirements.

The Local Web app relates in that it makes clear how we've started to think differently as influenced by every day technology, trying to show how we've taken the wideness of the web for granted. By only being able to access websites that are stored in your local vicinity, one is confronted with the inability to access the 'world wide' part of the web. At the same time, it displays the physicality of the internet which is often obfuscated and hidden behind the magical browser. What might seem local might not be at all.

Thesis intention

My thesis will be a big part in creating my project. By thoroughly examining the different ways of how cameras have evolved and have been altered and how they have influenced us throughout the years, both now and how we look back at the past (Through photographs, I hope to use these techniques in creating my own project. It will delve into the social and cultural constructions that influenced the shaping of the camera to what it is today and how that in turn effects us, taking a stance against the idea of techno determinism and focusing on the mutual shaping of technology (And thereby the tool). By focusing on the camera instead of the tool in general I want to create a more clear text that is still applicable to the use and creation of tools in general rather than solely the camera.

Practical steps

Researching the history of how the evolution of the camera (And in relation other tools) has shaped us, our view of the world and the technology of the camera will allow me to use these notions as a starting point for both my project and the final thesis.

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.

This will physically manifest itself in a single or a set of cameras, in a to be determined way of presentation, which will hopefully allow user interaction / participation to let the visitor be the operator.

References

Reference.