Diploma Proposal
Siddharth Jayaswal
Overarching intent:
To create a new form using existing technology, and use it to document and present, multi-layered information. Creating visual maps to make invisibilities visible.
As I am a citizen of this technoculture[1] and I’m born into an environment where
Technology is ubiquitous:
I want to create a device that is portable, has multiple cell phone cameras and a sound recording system.
This product will have the ability to:
- Record a single subject or event from many perspectives simultaneously in the same time
- Record many subjects or events at the same time.
Form
The form should be a wearable structure; it will also facilitate camera movements like panning and tilting. The ends of the arms should be pliable such that the phones can rotate 360 degrees.
Multi layered information.
By using sound, video and multiple vantage points, this form will create information that is multidimensional in nature. Using the frame to map what cannot be seen using a single point of view.
Mapping
Through this form I will be mapping things happening over the same period of time. Therefore time is the constant and the variables are whatever is changing.
I want to use this device to map the invisibilities present in our environment.
There are invisibilities in our daily lives. I have classified them as follows.
Physical
We are not aware of how our faces look while we are walking, how our hands move, the movement of our hair or what is behind us.
Cultural
In most Indian households there is one person who goes to buy the supplies for the house. A lot of people are not aware of what goes on before the food finally reaches their plates. For example there are a lot of non-vegetarians who don’t know where the meat that they are eating comes from.
People
There are people who we don’t see that are part of our lives, however not all of us see them as we never interact with them. For example the newspaper guy, the milkman, the radiwallah, and people who put up posters on walls.
Public
In public spaces you find traces of inhabitation, marks & scratches populate our Indian walls. This is just one example of invisibilities in public spaces.
SELF/PUBLIC
A broader way of categorizing these invisibilities would be
SELF- things that are part of my daily life but yet apply to a broader set of people.
PUBLIC - Ideas that apply to human beings in general. Archetypes make good examples of these - man and his tools, a mother and son relationship.
Eventually I would like to make a transition from SELF to PUBLIC space in my work during this project.
Display
I would also like to create an identity for myself and go into public space wearing this form to display these invisibilities I have captured. That way I will be able to make myself, an invisibility in the crowd visible and at the same time display content that should be of value to people.
This can be done with this mechanism.
THE NEED?
Perception is not limited- there are no restrictions on what the eye can look at.
One can see many things at once. The eye views things in a 180-degree plane.
The visual translation of perception is the camera. However, the camera is
limited to the frame. Through this form I am creating another way of seeing that tries to go beyond the frame by using multiple vantage points.
The process of using multiple cameras requires many people and a lot of resources. I want to create a rough low-tech solution to aid this process of capturing things.
Phones have now got cameras in them with editing software’s, and the capability
to produce short films. It seems like the right time to extend this portability to
the way in which users can capture footage.
Creating an opportunity for spontaneous documentation and recording of thoughts, ideas and situations.
The advent of platforms such as www.youtube.com, have made it easier for users to share video content.
In a wider context of art design & technology development:
ART
New media artists, across the world, have been working with technology to ask
questions, start explorations, create experiences and find answers.
TELEVISION & VIDEO
Multiple cameras have been used to create panoptical scenes in fiction films,
such as in the The Matrix.
Live sports editing, uses multiple cameras to document the events.
Surveillance cameras and C.C.Tvs use multiple cameras for security reasons.
Documentary films create content from recording real events.
Intrinsic worth of my project
Lies in being able to take technology and use the fact that it is available to us in such portable formats. Being able to extend that portability to map diverse environments and people.
My beliefs
- As a student of design, I believe that there are no boxes and that any work produced requires a basic understanding of how design functions-, whether the form be a product, a film or communication material. Through this project I want to demonstrate this understanding.
- There are stories and invisibilities present everywhere. We just have to look hard enough.
- Uncertainty and ambiguity give you multiple pathways. If you navigate well enough you are sure to find some answer.
Research questions
What are examples of works done using video in the field of mapping?
Invisibilities - Theory and categorization.
How do new technologies affect us? What are the examples of these effects?
What are the examples of work done with a camera in a real environment?
What are examples of work done with multiple cameras and multiple screens?
Cell phone cameras- how they work, limitations, and strengths and work done
Using them.
Privacy- Voyeurism? The debate on the ethicality of the created product.
Low- tech- how can I create what I want utilizing resources and material around
me, while keeping it simple?
Approach/ process
Rapid-prototyping / low tech
Fly on the wall - observing environments candidly.
Display- providing a service in a public environment.
