My department participated in a one-day charrette this weekend. We worked with Photo and 3D departments. The workshop was led by Scott Klinker (artist-in-residence of 3D) and Brian Collins from the Brand Integration Group in New York. 

The aim of this workshop was to “create and inspiring Kodak of the near future...develop and visualize a scenario of new products, services and experiences to show how your Kodak will enable these values.”

Our solution was to reinterpret the way people think of images. If you think about everything you see on a given day. On an average day we are seeing so many things; it’s hard to calculate how much our eyes see. Our brains reinterpret what we see and determine what is important and what is not. On an average day we concentrate on the tasks at hand and only ‘see’ what we ‘need’ to see. What if that was not the case. What if we could see things that we missed, things that are beautiful, that are important to notice? We propose a system that includes a small camera imbedded in a contact lens, to minimize the obtrusiveness. The camera only functions as a camera, the images are wirelessly uploaded to a central server. The images are tagged and sorted. What we envision is that the camera responds to neurological signals within our bodies as a trigger to make photographs. Thus if we are excited about something, or we are scared there is a measured internal response, a response which can be used as a signal for the camera to shoot. What then happens is that the image is then tagged with a certain amount of data, collected from the internal faculties. Based on that data the images are sorted and structured. The most important aspect of this system is that it relays these images back to you. Imagine what if you had a chance to see all those small wonderful moments you missed durring the day. What if you could see that amazing smile you didn’t notice someone had on the subway, or that crying child, or the way the shadows fell on the floor. All those moments that make our lives richer and more rewarding. The system we are proposing would play back these moments to us. Using a screen or a projection, the system would relay these wonderful mements back to us. This system would also be a way of connecting with other people. You would be able to see other peoples images that match up to your meta-data. Imagine being able to see another person’s image which was taken because of the same exact pulse rate. The system would also be equipped with pixel recognition allowing it to discern what was in the image; it would distinguish an apple from a tree for example. Thus conncetions might be made based on those formal factors as well. The posibilities for connectins are endless. But the main emphasis for this system is to be able to see the poetic moments that may otherwise go unnoticed.

We chose to illustrate our proposal by using our charrette as a basis for a day when certain moments will go unnoticed.

The Presentation Video 9Mb File. (Control click to save to disk)

That’s the result of 24 hours of working in a team of six people. The other members of my team, were Chris Williams (2D), John Truex (3D), Wynn Wu Hao (3D) and Takafumi Yato (Photo). Thanks to them for the hard work on this charrette.

4:57 pm | February 19, 2006  |  filed in: CRANBROOK