The Descriptive Camera

 Data Art, photograph, text  Comments Off
May 172012
 

descriptive camera output

The unassuming little Descriptive Camera made me rethink data. This project by Matt Richardson was on display at the ITP Spring Show. The basic premise is that you take a photo and the camera spits out a textual description of what it sees. The results are remarkably accurate, detailed, and humorous.

Here's what my photo said:

A woman wearing a seriously awesome jacket that is printed with yellow, blue, and grey circles looks at her ipad rather than making eye contact with Matt Richardson.

I mean, my jacket *IS* seriously awesome! So it not only described what it saw, but it also has great fashion sense. What a clever programmer you may be thinking.

Ah, but it's all a ruse. Albeit, a very novel and sly ruse. Matt described being underwhelmed by the EXIF data provided by digital cameras which provides you with things like date, time, camera model, and sometimes geo-spatial info. He wanted to see a world where cameras actually told you about the contents of the photo. Undeterred by the fact that this type of technology isn't feasible or practical right now, Matt decided to take a more human approach. He uses Amazon's Mechanical Turk and alternatively, instant messages to his friends, to subvert the computational task of providing a textual description of the photo.

So back to how this made me rethink data. It struck me that sometimes it's not what's immediately in front of you. Sometimes it's the shadow of the thing that's important; sometimes it's what envelopes it, or connects it to its surroundings, or maybe even a subjective description of what it is. Sometimes it's not a jacket... it's a seriously awesome jacket.

HistoryView

 Android, geography, Google, History, imagery, iPhone, map, Nbsp, photograph, Related Articles, time  Comments Off
Oct 292011
 

This looks great. Google maps and history merged into one. I wondered about how we merge the old and the new somehow.

  2349e84f615807d8c8f9c4b3457e3b8a HistoryView

I am keen to do old historical street maps overlayed on top of interactive google, try to bring a spice of art with the idea of collaging like Mercato previous post.

  c1543e86d9ba701e469c8984d222b5eb HistoryView

  But its free, it has pretty good clustering of pins as you zoom in and drill down the data so it doesn't become crowded like it could do. From the group We are what we Do, who bring you the beautiful Change the world for a fiver book talking about going green.

Also with it being supported by google you can sign up with your google details quite easily.

http://www.historypin.com/

http://wearewhatwedo.org/

 

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295ec03cbc8b56e8a9d013ecf16b6073 HistoryView

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Mapping Derby

 carto, collaborative, gps, map, Mapping, photograph  No Responses »
Apr 122011
 

Do you have a photograph of a place in Derby? Then upload it to here http://mappingderby.com/, have it geotagged, printed and added to this brilliant, low-fi, photographic map of derby.

DSCF0038 300x225 Mapping Derby

' FORMAT needs your help to Map Derby. Throughout FORMAT Festival we will be asking Derby visitors and residents to photograph the city streets under the theme of ‘Right Here, Right Now’. Each photograph will be uploaded and geo-tagged to create a unique map of the city. Give us your thoughts, memories and inspirations of the city.
There will be a growing installation in The Royal Insurance Buildings, 2 The Strand, Derby where a 3D map of the city will grow day by day.' http://mappingderby.com/

DSCF0043 1024x768 Mapping Derby

Ok, its not completely low fi they use a lovely printer called a poga printer that uses paper that has the ink inside it so no need to replace cartridges, apparently £8.99 for about 70 sheets (I realise I sound like I just discovered apps for the first time). But I love the pins and pictures relating to that area on a lovely a3 enalrging, hockney-joiner, A-to-Z photocopies that arent quite as smooth as google street view but I think adds to its charm and beauty with the handmade approach.

DSCF0036 1024x768 Mapping Derby

I also love that pins go off the map into unchartered terrains and only the photographs are the evidence of it. It is wierd for an exhibition to be on woodchip wallpaper I must admit and i suppose the only thing I didnt like was that the map had gaps because of the walls, couldnt orientate myself, not that i'm that familiar with Derby, but maybe i'm being picky. They have tried to adapt a space to present this project and the online digital geo-tagged images on a google map are great.

Format Festival was excellent too, with collaborations on projects with Magnum.

http://www.formatfestival.com/

Related posts:

  1. Chaumont Graphic Design Festival
  2. Mapping Modernism
  3. Mapping Genes

Photo of the Week: Fun with Snow Shoes

 photograph, photography, snow  No Responses »
Feb 012011
 

This albumen print (1866) is part of a pair originally published by Lawrence & Houseworth in their “Gems of California” collection as a stereographic view. Two people can be seen skiing down a wintry slope in this photograph, which features an original caption reading “Metho[d] of traveling on snow shoes.” This image is available from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Photo of the Week: Louisa Alcott

 alcott, photograph, photography, portrait  No Responses »
Dec 012010
 

Image of Louisa AlcottThis portrait of novelist Louisa May Alcott comes from the Berg Collection portrait files at the New York Public Library. Taken by James Notman in 1865, the photograph shows Alcott posed on a wicker chair, with her writing desk in the background.

Browse other author portraits from the Berg Collection here, or search Adam Matthew Digital’s archive of the Berg Manuscript Collection (citations only) here.