
Camera Restricta: A disobedient tool for taking unique photographs - GuiA
http://philippschmitt.com/projects/camera-restricta
======
vessenes
This gets an A for quality agit-prop art in my mind; I immediately started
coming up with objections as if I was actually going to be using one. My first
was "what if I want people I know in my photos?" My second thought was "You
could just include a highly rated photo someone else took in your photo roll,"
followed by "But what about licensing?"

We could also imagine Camera Commons: distributed by EFF and Google and Yahoo,
and encourages you to take photos places that have no CC-licensed photography
that rates highly on flickr, but all your images are CC0 licensed. The better
your average rating, the more frequently they send you new models.

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joosters
The camera could take his one stage further - when you pick the camera up in a
well-photographed location, it just downloads the most popular shot from
there. This would save you the effort of framing your shot entirely, and you'd
always end up with a perfect picture :)

~~~
zyxley
For a less absurdist but similar idea, it would actually be really neat to
have a tool that can take a group of your photos and match them with one
popular CC-licensed one that adds more context to the scene.

e.g. you and your friends at the base of the Eiffel Tower, and the album
automatically has a suitably well-framed picture of the landmark as a whole
added as a backdrop, that kind of thing.

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jules
Why is everyone missing the point? Yea sure this doesn't accurately determine
whether a picture is original. Of course it's not practical. Of course you
would not buy this. That isn't the point. This project is itself art.

~~~
cortesoft
This is kind of amusing reading a bunch of engineers try to apply engineering
thinking to art.

~~~
VLM
I think they're "playing along" and trying to make a piece of performance art
about people not recognizing performance art or art criticism, a statement
against lack of artistic creativity, or whatever.

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mtw
A nice theoretical exercise but I slightly disagree with the rationale. In a
popular area, an artist could have a different view from others. Perhaps it's
the late-morning mist, another person in the view, sun rays at a different
time, or maybe a new lens and different settings that lets you view the space
in a totally different perspective.

Also taking a picture in a new or unpopular area doesn't make it more worthy
than other pictures. Perhaps the place is unappealing and bland.

~~~
bmelton
And dramatically underestimates the need for additive photography. Ferguson
riots, Baltimore riots, New York during and after 9/11, etc., would all be
blocked out by this.

Moreover, my vanity photos would almost certainly be excluded. I'm certainly
not the first guy to take a photo of Haleiwa during the Triple Crown of
surfing, but my photo is likely the only one that has me in them, and that,
along with the memories that photo will evoke, are definitely not things I
want to exclude from my life.

Understanding that this is probably a political statement (of which I'm not
entirely clear yet), it's certainly a damned disturbing one.

~~~
peteretep

        > this is probably a political statement (of which I'm
        > not entirely clear yet)
    

From the article:

    
    
        <title>... disobedient
    
        > The European Parliament recently voted against a
        > controversial proposal that 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.

~~~
bmelton
Thanks. I mean, I see that, I'm just not entirely sure how this is a response
to it. Probably I'm just missing the link between copyright and 'already
photographed', and/or whether or not that itself is a part of the commentary,
or if it is just an implementation detail.

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joeframbach
The forum equivalent would be similar to ROBOT9000[1] by xkcd. Could this idea
be extended to image sharing sites? An r9k for imgur?

[1] [http://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and-xkcd-signal-
at...](http://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and-xkcd-signal-attacking-
noise-in-chat/)

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chillingeffect
FWIW, you could classify this as "Interrogative Design," a practice
accelerated by Krzysztof Wodiczko, who lived under communist oppression in
Poland, but now has had cushy positions at MIT and Harvard [1 ]

He focuses a lot on projections now, but in the past and his students have,
made lots of "fake devices" or in Chris Csiksmihalyi's practice "edgy
products" which typically misfunction in order to start conversations or get
us to see things outside our usual waking trance. In a way, they're like small
hacks that hackers do which invert or reveal power relationships.... (the big
difference is these art projects don't usually always actually work -not that
they really have to though, but if it often creates confusion and/or animosity
from real hackers). Anyway, there are lots of great pieces in this category,
see [2] and there are many more.

Protip: Once you start to see things through this lens, you'll realize that so
many other actual projects have unintentional profiles as Interrogative
Designs

[ 1
][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzysztof_Wodiczko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzysztof_Wodiczko)

[ 2 ]
[http://www.interrogative.org/projects/](http://www.interrogative.org/projects/)

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arebop
Almost all photos are copyrighted and not licensed for my use. In practice I
rarely worry much about it, and I doubt it is very common to think "I must
take my own photo of the Washington Monument, because how else will I get
permission to decorate my travelogue?" but still. It is great that image data
is so abundant, but it's a shame that it's also artificially scarce.

------
pietherr
You want to restrict the number of similar pictures, not the number of
pictures taken at a specific spot. So you should decide based on the what's in
the view of the lens, or after taking the picture.

Imagine a polaroid camera that shreds the picture if it's deemed not original
enough :)

~~~
mikeash
That could be useful in all sorts of comments. A music composition app that
destroys any work that's too derivative. A Twitter client that blocks
repetitive tweets. Maybe Hacker News comments could benefit.

~~~
joosters
A hacker news bot that auto-posts common messages would save us lots of
arguing time. e.g. Whenever a submission references some c/c++ code, the bot
could auto-post a whole thread of arguments about 'why are people still using
this insecure language?', thus saving HN denizens from posting and arguing
over the same thing...

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riebschlager
I don't know if it constitutes a trend, but I've noticed several thought
experiment projects like this that attempt to automate decision making in some
way. The other one that comes to mind is the cell phone signal-blocking chair
[1] that's somehow more convenient than turning off your phone (?)

It's kind of funny to watch us all try to use technology to save us from the
adverse effects of technology.

[1] [http://inhabitat.com/take-a-break-from-the-wired-world-
with-...](http://inhabitat.com/take-a-break-from-the-wired-world-with-this-
awesome-signal-blocking-offline-chair/)

~~~
Someone1234
I'm not sure this project does "automate decision making." I'd argue that the
intent is to encourage you to expand your photographic reputare beyond generic
tourist snaps and other bland over-done photos.

My biggest criticism isn't the intent which I think could be legitimately
useful. My issue is that they make assumptions about a photo's originality
based purely on GPS coordinates, which is too simplistic.

I've taken terrible photos in unusual locations (e.g. taking pictures of
pretty flowers in a field). I've also taken amazing photos in tourist traps by
finding a different perspective, or just happened across a great picture
opportunity.

In an ideal world this camera would use GPS and aim to determine how generic
your picture really is (e.g. shooting straight up into the bottom of the
Eiffel tower isn't original, sorry. But shooting the Eiffel tower with a bunch
of toy Eiffel towers on a souvenir stand in the foreground is at least a
little).

~~~
riebschlager
What I meant by "automate decision making" is that there _should_ be some
measure of critical thought that goes into taking a photograph. How will I
compose the frame? What am I really trying to capture?

This camera answers "Do a lot of other people take photos here?" which, as you
point out, is an overly simplistic measure of a good photo.

But if you take this idea a little further and run some of that fancy deep-
learnin' stuff of on your photos to search for common photography tropes (Oh,
a macro shot of a flower? Pfft. Been done!), then you're just relegating more
of your critical thinking to a machine.

~~~
Someone1234
I just see it as a way to snap people out of their patterns.

I try to be a photographer, and I know I myself get caught in patterns of
shitty bland photos that I look at a year later and roll my eyes ("this thing
has RUST on it!!! [snap] [snap] [snap]."

We both agree it may not work, but the concept is compelling if nothing else.

PS - To be frank however, if you really want to escape patterns one of these
"one photo a day" challenges for a year that give you specific themes might be
a better answer. If the themes are thoughtful it can help.

------
Retra
I kind of wish it worked the opposite way: only allowing you to take pictures
near other photo locations. That way you have to make a 'photo-journey' to get
new locations in, and you'll leave a trail of experiences in your wake.

Then maybe someone could find a way to stitch those photos together.

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Broken_Hippo
I had the same agitated reactions upfront. However, the same software
presented differently, and suddenly youve a fun option to travel around a city
and expand your photography. It could be a fun option for some, and obviously
could be used maliciously as a form of control. All that said, though, this
being the highlight of the camera is ridiculous. The times I want a regular
camera with normal societal uses greatly outweighs the fun of this:
Furthermore, I am an artist, and would find that this would greatly reduce my
photography - sometimes surreal things happen in mundane but popular places.

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tdaltonc
Many social platforms exist because of the power of their restrictions
(twitter, snapchat, etc). I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend spread to
rest of technology. I don't want technology that can make me anyone/anything;
I want technology that will help me to be exactly who I want to be, and
nothing else.

~~~
fezz
A restriction is not the same as preventing you from doing something. It
should be called Camera Preventica.

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shade23
Why cannot photographs be simply for the reason of memories?Not everyone
person who clicks them uses them for blog posts and aims for maximum number of
shares. If I like particular moment,I would like to click a picture a of it.I
would like the picture to be my own ,because I would have a descriptive
commentary in my head for the picture.A single location being photographed
'too much' is really not an issue which needs solving does it.I like the use-
case which requires the parent's permission for a child's picture.

But apart from that,I see this feature being exploited quite a fair bit.

PS : I am not trying to add destructive comments here.But imagine going on a
20k vacation with a 5k camera being told you are not allowed to click a
picture.

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logfromblammo
This reminds me of the wider-angle tourist shot of all the dozens of people
taking the same "Look, I'm holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa!" pictures at
the same time.

While that is certainly ridiculous, and this camera would prevent it, I am not
a fan of buying tools that restrict how I may use them. You would have to pay
me to use it.

I think a better way to accomplish a similar goal would be for the camera to
give you a score for your photos. Zero points for duplicate photos. Lots of
points for a photo that has never been taken before. Give out prizes and
badges to the people who top the leaderboards.

But no, if I see "photography prohibited" on my camera, it's getting pwned and
patched, or it's going in the trash.

~~~
lucretian
martin parr:

[http://www.phaidon.com/resource/263-54.jpg](http://www.phaidon.com/resource/263-54.jpg)

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macocha
I won't comment on the pragmatic side of this. But it is flawed even on the
idea level, as it completely disregards time. And as we all know it "You could
not step twice into the same river".

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geargrinder
Now if we could only apply the same technology to Hacker News comments.

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arturhoo
By "disobedient tool for taking unique photographs" I was expecting a camera
that added some sort of noise/glitches/features to pictures to make them
unique.

As an art project, it sounds provoking to restrict a fellow photographer to
reinterpret an ordinary/popular scenery.

Looking through the lenses of an engineer, the GPS alone won't tell accurately
enough the direction at which you are pointing. Would be nice to take that
into consideration, forcing a building to be photographed from every angle.

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ctdonath
How about an augmented reality viewer that shows exactly where every known
photo has been taken (say, showing the image planes floating in their space)?
or a "photosynth" virtual camera that deduces, from other pictures taken
nearby, what a photo would likely look like if taken from that spot (opposite
of camera restricta, have camera deducia)?

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chadgeidel
I wonder what the creator's thoughts are about Microsoft's Photosynth project
- which relies on multiple photos of the same thing (like tourists would
take).

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynth)

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vonklaus
I think this is an awesome attistic statement, especially going the extra mild
to build the camera. People might actually use this if it was an iPhone app.
"400 people took photos of sushi in this location, proceed?". That would be
really kind of a funny way to limit shitty photographs.

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kelvin0
It's bizarre that a photographic artist would want a tool that would
essentially stiffle creativity (various lightings, lens filters, other artsy
effects) ... I don't understand the point they are trying to make.

~~~
jackmaney
Yeah, I have absolutely no idea why anyone would buy this.

"Oh, it's a camera that won't allow me to take whatever picture I want. And it
makes staticky, clicky noises, sounding like an ill dolphin. Just what I've
always wanted in a camera!"

Can anyone give me a compelling reason why I should consider buying this
thing?

~~~
chippy
why should you buy it? Because it's a work of art, and not a consumer device,
mainly. Because it doesn't make logical sense.

It works as art and has value because it creates the things that we are
talking about in this thread.

~~~
jackmaney
Why should I support so-called "art" that wants to restrict what I can do? Why
should I spend any money on this garbage, when a digital camera from any Big
Box store is clearly superior?

~~~
Sanddancer
It was made as a political protest of legislation that was intended to block
the amount of photography of buildings whose design was copyrighted.
Unfortunately, it wasn't really a /good/ protest of such, so the discussion
has become more a discussion as to if there's artistic quality in the banal.

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billiam
The most subversive thing about this device is its use of the WebAudio API.

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tempodox
I want the internet to increase freedom, not restrict it. This is one camera I
would never use. Besides, a GPS location is not a satisfactory representation
of a photography's uniqueness.

~~~
camillomiller
Are you really judging a prop of a conceptual art performance as you would
judge the next camera from Canon?

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cdcox
I think the coolest part is the Geiger counter for number of images taken in
an area. Having that playing while you walk around a new city could be a lot
of fun.

~~~
kaolinite
It would be interesting to have a map of this and explore a new city by going
to the spots with the most photos. It'd mainly be the tourist spots but it'd
be more exciting than regular sight-seeing as you'd never know what you were
on your way to see.

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anigbrowl
I do not care for the implicit commodification of human experience that flows
from this proposal.

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r-w
What if someone wants to take a snapshot on vacation as a way of remembering
when they were last there? Maybe make an exception for photos with new faces.
Also, who takes selfies/snapshots with a camera anymore? Everyone has a
smartphone. Someone should pitch this to Apple.

