notes.husk.org/likes images.

blech:

Camera Restricta, by Philipp Schmitt (via prosthetic knowledge):

Camera Restricta is a speculative design of a new kind of camera. It locates itself via GPS and searches online for photos that have been geotagged nearby.
If the camera decides that too many photos have been taken at your location, it retracts the shutter and blocks the viewfinder. You can’t take any more pictures here.

The European Parliament recently voted against a controversial proposalthat threatened to restrict the photography of copyrighted buildings and sculptures from public places.

The camera could be funded or subsidized by public and private sector institutions with an interest in regulating photography in certain places.

It’s censorship that doesn’t happen after, but before a picture was taken. Think of it like trying to scan a bank note with your flatbed scanner at home: it doesn’t work, software prevents it. Shouldn’t this be just a tool?

The camera creates a sensing ability for this invisible data by translating it to acoustic feedback that reminds of a geiger counter. But instead of warning against radioactivity each clicking noise represents a photo detected nearby.

The noise alerts of “infested” i.e. frequently photographed places and sometimes reveals photos in surprising locations.

Camera Restricta introduces new limitations to prevent an overflow of digital imagery. As a byproduct, these limitations also bring about new sensations like the thrill of being the first or last person to photograph a certain place.

I’d like to see this, but instead of being a camera and restricting you from taking photos where there are already too many, the device figures out where you are, what you’re pointing at, the weather and time of day, and simply saves someone else’s picture rather than taking a new one. (Preferably a Creative Commons licensed photo and the ‘best’ quality one available).

It’d be interesting to see whether someone else’s photos could effectively become your memories, or not.