The camera that takes others’ photos
September 27th, 2006
An interesting art project sparked our interest on the popular blog “We Make Money Not Art”
Sascha Pohflepp is a new media artist based in Berlin.
His Buttons (aka the “Blind Camera”) captures a moment at the press of a button. However, the device doesn’t have any optical part instead memorizes only the time of the picture and immediately searches the net for other photos that have been taken in the same moment.
Essentially, it is a camera that only takes photos that were created by someone who pressed a button somewhere else at that very time as its own button was pressed.
Sascha Pohflepp writes.
After a few minutes or hours, depending on how soon someone else shares their photo on the web, an image will appear on the screen. In a way, it belongs half to the person who had pressed the button and still remembers that moment. Because of that connection, the photos are never dismissed as random, no matter how enigmatic they may be.
We share a similar attraction to the project as lead blogger of “We make money not art” writes:
“Brilliant stuff, Sascha! I’m sure i’ll still want to take my own pictures but i’d love to have another one that allows me to do on the spot what i can’t help doing when i upload my images on flickr: snooping around to check the photgraphies of other users who attended the same event as me or know the same person or happen to be in town that day.”
Well worth a look, Blink, the other chapter of Sascha’s project.
