This is my first cardboard prototype of the camera portion of my project. It actually turned out better than I expected. I used a laser printer to cut out the pieces, and put a mirror inside to reflect wha the top lens displays. There are some places to improve for the next iteration, but I’m excited having something real in my hands.

Last week, I met with my mentor, Fletcher, for the first time. Fletcher is a freelance creative technologist who specializes in prototyping new hardware for companies. He also has a passion for photography, which is why he was suggested as my mentor.

I explained my thesis project to Fletcher, who responded enthusiastically and answered some questions I had during my Show-and-tell presentation. He recognized that my main goal is to teach people how to slow down the process of making photographs. Fletcher gave me advice on overcoming some of the hardware challenges I have encountered, such as 3D printing the camera body. He also provided suggestions for future production after the prototype stage.

During the Show-a-thing this week, I was able to practice presenting my project and I got a lot of good feedback on my presentation and project.

Heidi

• Clarity on who is my audience, and what is intended for that audience? Through my presentation, it was not clear if the camera is used only by me, or by the public
• More to show more clarity on what was discovered from my research. I added a slide about my research, but I was not clear about what was discovered through my research.
• From my project, Heidi’s key takeaway were the terms “nostalgia” and “scarcity”
• Adding a use case to my presentation would be useful to understand how the project would be used by my intended audience.

Enrique

• From my project, Enrique felt that my main message is “slowing down the process”
• I asked a question about whether I should be concerned if the accuracy of the photo between the viewfinder and the final photo is important. Enrique thought accuracy not that important because user knows that it’s not the purpose of the camera
• Related to a question about reducing bias in my ML model, he suggested that the more people who tag the photos and train the model, the less bias there is
• Enrique advised possibly considering making each photo uploaded as an NFT
• Is this project going to be an open source project?

Maria

• Maria’s main takeaway is that the project forces you to take your time with photos because they’re precious
• Asked if I imagined if the camera would be sold as a product or renting it, or possibly passing the camera around
• Asked if the limit of 36 shots will create a story
• Not 100% clear that I was building a camera from my presentation
• More interested in my process vs. the research I presented. It would be more interesting to add quotes that move me and influence my practice
• Not clear who the camera is for, is it for me or the public
• Think about the intention of open source—would it encourage a more community-based approach

YG

• YG’s main takeaway is that people are relearning the photography process
• Asked why I you considered this “social media” since the users don’t have much control over the platform
• Asked why the user doesn’t interact with the website with likes/followers, and does that impact the audience
• In terms of accuracy, people would more critical on whether the collection matches the theme, rather than the accuracy of the photos
• To measure bias, should I compare results from other search engines?
• Bias may be good—I could be teaching people my definition of what these themes should mean
• If I’m upfront about who is training the model, and that it’s someone who is “trustworthy”, then it’s not important that there’s bias

From my last conversation with Sarah, she suggested that I created a user storyboard.

This shows the whole system of my project, and how the user’s photos are taken and displayed on my social media website.

During this meeting with Sarah, I described to her about how stuck I have been lately with my thesis. I felt that I’ve been procrastinating working on it because I had too many thoughts and ideas about which way my project could go. I think I was also hung up over the feedback I had gotten for my proposal, and felt that I needed to think more deeply and theorize more.

Sarah encouraged me to not think too much about theory and meaning, and that by doing, I could find the meaning I’m trying to convey. We talked about my next steps, and what I should complete in the next week.

My next steps:

1. Create a storyboard of how a user would use my project. I have a clear idea in my head on how this will work, but have yet to document it
2. Build the hybrid digital-analog camera, use it, and list its affordances
3. Prep your meeting with my mentor: share the project first, get feedback, then talk about your theorizing and see if it matches how my mentor interpreted it
4. Create a production schedule

This really helped me to let go of the idea itself, and get started on actually building/making it. Knowing things can and will change made me feel better about moving forward with my project.

From the feedback I received for my thesis proposal, my takeaways are that:

• The concept could benefit from a more radical approach, particularly in regards to image-sharing and social network aspects.
• The project could benefit from more research into media theory and sociology regarding media and “social media.”
• Alternative approaches to cameras and photography should be explored.
• The project needs more focus and clarification in terms of priorities and emphasis.

The feedback was very useful and does touch upon many thoughts I have already been brainstorming since I submitted my proposal. When I submitted the proposal, the only part I had a clear idea of was the “image-making” phase, which I described building a hybrid digitial-analog camera. From there, I had some vague ideas for the “image-sharing” and “image-consuming” phases, but I have been thinking more about since. For instance, during the “image-consuming” phase, I aim to prototype the idea of presenting photos as part of a collection, rather than as singular, individual objects. This contrasts with current social media trends that encourage individualism and competition. In the next few weeks, I plan to create mock web pages to demonstrate how this would look, and conduct light user testing to gauge its reception. I have also been reading more about social media theory, specifically through reading the book The Social Photo, which has a lot of interesting theories about how we interact with social media.

Since drafting my proposal, I have been thinking a lot about each of the phases of photography (image-making, image-sharing, and image-consuming), and have decided to start brainstorming first with the image-making process.

Through talking to my peer feedback group and another 1:1 with Sarah, it has become clear that I want to make a camera that applies both digital and analog elements. A quick search on Youtube for “DIY cameras” has given me lots of inspiration about how to start building camera prototypes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd4F-N301bk&ab_channel=GChang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cT0jXI7l4E&t=4s

To begin prototyping, I think my first step will be attempting to make a camera obscura from cardboard in order to understand the mechanisms of analog viewfinders and to see if something that simple can recreate the magical feeling that I get when I use a film camera.

From the conceptual side, I have begun reading On Photography by Susan Sontag to get a better understanding of the history of photography, and learn about the key photographers who pioneered photography as an art. It’s interesting to read about photography theory, as it is something I have never studied and only thought of practically.

In yesterday’s peer feedback meeting, we discussed our initial ideas for our thesis topics. I talked about my first conversation with Sarah, and some ideas I’ve been thinking about after talking more about my photography practice. Nun and I discussed a lot about analog photography, and what drew me to it. I said that I enjoyed the entire of process of it—taking the time to load a film roll into the camera, taking shots sparingly, developing the film, printing the photo in a darkroom, etc. The process makes me feel closer to my own work.

I had some initial ideas about “reimagining” the photography exhibit by making it more interactive. But after the discussion with Nun, I also like the idea of building a type of camera that focuses on the process, over the image itself.

With all these new thoughts and ideas, I met with Sarah again for another 1-1 and described to her my thoughts about photography. We had a thorough conversation about how to move forward with my research. My next steps is to look at each step of the photography process (ie. making a photo, sharing it, and consuming it) and brainstorm alternative ways of doing those things. I’ll also be experimenting with actually making something for each of those topics, to figure out if any of those experiments is something to move further with.