Ideation and Prototyping: New Metaphors, New Models

For this week’s assignment I decided to use the new model exercise to imagine new ways to think about capture devices. While my thesis will be largely centered around analog photography, I want to also explore new ways current technologies could take capturing forward.

What exists now?

In the landscape of virtual production, we have many new tools for creation. These tools however are often driven by large companies who follow large leading productions/studios. An example of this being Star Wars/Avatar/Blockbuster films that can invent new strategies for filmmaking/capture. Live production with LED walls has become a huge market recently as well. Some of the technologies they employ are camera data/camera location/tracking backgrounds/live updating backgrounds. Also Apple has introduced the true sense tracking and depth information for apps to use. Traditionally, photography cameras only have technology related to exposure control, automatic features, film advancing, and now WIFI enabled sharing. Would depth data bring any new features to these photos? What possibilities could be found with integrated different kinds of capture technology and data?

To explore this I used a card deck from Dan Lockton’s New Metaphors.

The cards that stuck with me:

• Adaptability
• The presence of AI & The opportune moment
• Privacy of your data
• The backstory of a product or service

In the concept of a camera/capturing device how can these concepts and metaphors be utilized? I did some sketching to think through these concepts.

For adaptability I really was interested in the idea of a modular format camera. This currently is impossible but was a fun thought experiment. The biggest barriers are the fact that flange focal distance for different formats can change dramatically. I think the use of bellows and interchanging film backs could be one solution. I was inspired by the Hasselblad modular design that allows film backs to be changed, for different types of film (not format/size).

I think there is something DIY and magical about the use of bellows in photography. I think it could help with the creation of newer low budget medium format cameras, as this was the case in the past. Collapsible for convenience.