In this course in "Experimental Capture", we aim to understand the words "photograph" and "camera" in the broadest possible sense.
We aim to question the basic assumptions of camera-based imaging, as we generally understand it today. In this course, we will interrogate and test underlying assumptions, such as the premise that:
- a photo shows a scene from only one moment
- a photo shows a scene from only one point of view
- a photo's exposure is nearly instantaneous
- a photo is viewable (developed) immediately
- a camera is small enough to be handheld
- a camera is large enough to see with the naked eye
- a photo has a fixed focal plane
- a photo is produced in only one sitting
- a photo persists longer than its subject.
- a photo has linear perspective
- a photo documents light frequencies similar to those perceived by human vision.
- But what if a photo recorded or transduced electromagnetic phenomena beyond our perception, such as ultraviolet, near infrared, thermal (deep infrared), or x-rays?
- a photo is someone's decisive construction.
- But what if a photo were more like the result of a query into a database? Or something triggered by an algorithm?
- a photo only shows the external surfaces of things.
- But what if a photo showed the internal structure of its subject?
- a photograph is comprised of a uniform rectangular grid of pixels
- a photo has homogeneous information density everywhere (not foveal)
- a photo is taken with a camera which you 'own' and over which you have physical control (found cameras)
- a photo is a static media object. (It could be playable, like a game)
- a photo is is rectangular