Up until now, I have presented my thesis project “inventori” as an earnest attempt and creating a useful tool. I thought of it as a coping mechanism for those of us that are too sentimental about our things to give them away. I’ve been planning to make a website that can be a database for the common man to document his common things, and a corresponding machine that can be used to collect relevant data.
My goal for winter break was to develop a visual language and taxonomy for the online archive. After considering the usual designer-ly tactics (icons, silhouettes, colors, textures) I decided to ditch my usual graphic tendencies for a slightly darker(?) aesthetic.
The visual language of CCTV videos kind of looks like our memory– it’s a little blurry, a little distorted. Parts of the scene are vague. The idea of CCTV is also rich with social/political connotations, particularly ownership and surveillance (and the absurdity of surveilling mundane objects).
If I go this route, I recognize that my website is going to lose some if its utility. The objects are partially obstructed and are being seen from an angle that might make it hard to view their details. This could be mitigated with alternative camera placement and lighting, but often it’s not necessary to view an object in its entirety to remember what it is. Usually a glimpse of some detail will do, especially if its an object that is truly important to us.
In this format, the my project would still have the web component but the machine component would be a tricked-out cardboard box–the only storage box you’ll ever need! This one box will hold everything (well, sort of.) The box would have an interior light that turns on when the lid is closed, and a camera that can take images of the things inside the box. Perhaps the camera is hooked up to an Arduino that can wirelessly transmit the image data to the website?
I prototyped the light functionality with some copper tape, a battery, and an LED. Closing the lid of the box completes the circuit and turns on the light:
How it would be used:
Users would be allowed to create their own CCTV “channel.” To do this, they would place their objects into the box, close the lid, and wait for the box to take a photo. The user would have to sign into the app or something so that the photos get associated with their account. When the photos are uploaded to their online CCTV channel, they have the faux video noise overlaid, as well as a timecode. The website would still have some sorting and tagging capabilities.
In a gallery setting:
There’s an empty TV shell, inside of which sits an iPad. The screen is showing through the void that used to display the TV screen. Next to the TV (or maybe inside it, behind the iPad) is the cardboard storage box.
The iPad would be playing a slideshow of all the images uploaded from the storage box, or perhaps show a grid of multiple images at a time (with the faux video noise overlaid). Each time a visitor puts something in the storage box, it gets added to the slideshow.