Dong Ik Shin & Adrià López
Polaroid Cacher
Interactive Telecommunications Program(ITP) at New York University
Polaroid Cacher
Polaroid Cacher
The Polaroid Cacher is a camera that allows you to take traditional instant pictures of your digital experiences. It’s an ambient device, part physical and part digital, meant to address the fleeting nature of online interactions. (please visit our project url, http://polaroidcacher.tumblr.com)
2. The Brief: Summarize the problem you set out to solve. What was the context for the project, and what was the challenge posed to you?We believe that our daily online activity–conversations, discoveries, and games–is as meaningful as our activity in the physical world. It should be preserved the same way we try to capture every important moment in our life because most of these experiences will be soon forgotten, lost under layers of information, databases and outdated services. Given the powerful association of instant photography with memories, people and nostalgia rather than with photographic quality, we designed our camera as a fictional Polaroid product. It captures digital media in a traditional analog format, as means to create tangible and durable mementos of our digital life. (please visit our project url, http://polaroidcacher.tumblr.com)
3. The Intent: What point of view did you bring to the project, and were there additional criteria that you added to the brief?The camera is composed of two interfaces. The “lens” is a browser plugin that waits for your input. The moment you want to take a picture, it overlays a viewfinder that allows you to frame an area and shoot a picture of it. The physical interface is an ambient device that requires no interaction from the user. After taking the snapshot, it will “develop” the picture and wirelessly print it, framed like a traditional instant photo. It was built by combining a vintage Polaroid Land Camera and a custom laser cut enclosure, in order to represent the same convergence of analog and digital media that the project is based on. Other methods have been considered as the input for taking the picture. Using a native application to solve the browser limitation, analyzing the smile from the user to passively decide when to capture the screen, or making the camera a shared object. The possibilities are endless. (please visit our project url, http://polaroidcacher.tumblr.com)
4. The Process: Describe the rigor that informed your project. (Research, ethnography, subject matter experts, materials exploration, technology, iteration, testing, etc., as applicable.) What stakeholder interests did you consider? (Audience, business, organization, labor, manufacturing, distribution, etc., as applicable)Our rigor is based on observation, research, design, technology and social engagement. With a focus on physical activities, we created a new product that aim to embrace the very moment in history we’re living in. (please visit our project url, http://polaroidcacher.tumblr.com)
5. The Value: How does your project earn its keep in the world? What is its value? What is its impact? (Social, educational, economic, paradigm-shifting, sustainable, environmental, cultural, gladdening, etc.)Our product value is combination of analog and digital experience and memory and preservation of digital experiences. The Polaroid Cacher is a camera that allows you to take traditional instant pictures of your digital experiences. It’s an ambient device, part physical and part digital, meant to address the fleeting nature of online interactions. (please visit our project url, http://polaroidcacher.tumblr.com)
We felt that this work was notable in how it embodies a shift in the way important life events are being recorded, almost always in a digital form.