2 minutes introduction as of March of 2008
My name is Taeyoon Choi. I am a tourist from South Korea. (*take a picture with camera) After few tours to exotic places and exhibiting internationally, I came to realize the pictures I take are just like that of other tourists. Suddenly the act of taking pictures seem to become tedious act from yesterday. I questioned, while new technology is making our life more convenient, automatic home electronics are replacing our labor, why is there no a camera that takes photograph on its own. So I decided to liberate cameras from human operation.
I was also looking into some pre-electronic Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, and discovered a French inventor Jacques de Vauncanson's Mechanical Digesting duck that didn't actually digest but simulated the act of digesting. The duck seemed to be a proper metaphor for they flock and migrate, just like the tourists.
Therefore I am making a 'Magical Image Digesting Duck', by hacking digital camera, printer, vacuum cleaner, mp3 player and connecting them by a single microcontroller. The duck, Charlie travels to many tourists spots in New York City. The duck takes a picture when it detects flash light from other camera, prints it out or posts them on the Net via WIFI.
The project is realized through a commission for resident artist at EYEBEAM Art and Technology Center and with creativity and effort of numerous collaborators and friends.
*I repeated saying this at least 100 times during residency, because the atelier/labs are open to public.
Project proposal:
The project was first concieved as a proposal for commission project at residency program of EYEBEAM Art and Technology Center. Click to download original application. (soon)
Background:
Tourists and photographs
I have been always fascinated with tourists and their relationship with cameras and photographs. I made few projects in this theme, and I am a permanent tourist. With help of (wonderful!) Lenny Correa, We've gathered thousands of tourists photographs with emphasis in certain locations in New York City. I studied the pattern of the photographs composition and contents, and came to understand tourists desire for pictures a bit more deeply.
Around the time, I was reading "Regarding pain of others" by Susan Sontag and "Camera Lucida" by Roland Barthes. Some essays such as "The Birth of the ‘Kodak Moment’: Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Adoption of New Technologies" by Kamal A. Munir and Nelson Phillips. Also, some essays from Tourist Studies journal were fun to read, such as ‘Who is a tourist?’: A critical review by Scott McCabe.
Automata and automation:
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I was thinking about automation and artificial intelligence, and human desire for technology to replace human labor. There are many great readings in this topic, few of them are following. "The Defecating Duck, or, the Ambigious Origins of Artificial Life" is an intriguing essay by Jessica Riskin. "Islamic Automation: A Reading of al-Jazari’s The Book Of Knowledge Of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (1206)" is a superb essay by Gunalan Nadarajan. Also, "The System of Objects" is a book by by Jean Baudrillard is a big help.
Production:
Hacking, sub cultures and thanks to Open Source:
And then, I had to learn a lot of new technology. Some were popular D.I.Y hobby and media art tool kits, and some were from the stangest subculture. I found myself browsing the web, shopping electronic parts, and struggling to make use of them. With help of powerful technical collaborators, fellows and interns at EYEBEAM (Devon Rueckner, Seohwan Cheon, Friedrich Kirschner, Andy Miller, and many more), most of the idea were realized, while it was never fully functional. Just like the defecating duck, the camerautomata 'almost' digested images automatically (more about technical achievemnts and short comings, soon)
Some notable references were Arduino, CHDK (Canon Hackers Development Kit) and Kite Aerial Photography fans, Roomba hackers, Duck hunting Decoy user groups, and lots of NYU ITP websites.On the side, an earlier duck project by Natalie Jeremijenko and Robotic pets by Frances Cadet was source of inspiration for working with the medium mentioned above. .
Here will be (soon, I promise) all the codes and circuit diagram, with tech spec sheet that we used to make the duck. so you can make the duck, or better, complete the project.
Digested Images:
These are some images that the prototype duck took and printed. Some came out with beautiful marks and happy accidents. (more soon)
Intervention:
First time out to Park! (more soon)
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The duck Loved in the Chelsea art scene: The duck was well loved in fancy parties in Chelsea and art scene. We got some good publicity through showing up in events. |
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The fabrication:
After making the initial working prototype, I decided the duck needs more visible figure. A playful aesthetic will be a better tool to interact with people. I've designed the duck based on the initial sketches, and mixed with some other duck forms from popular culture. The result is a comic duck figure fabricated out of many materials. This process was done with much of expertise and effort from interns and friends, Sunghun Kim being the lead fabricator. (full documentation soon)
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Interactivos? was a collaborative workshop which I helped organize. We took a field trip to a west river park in Chelsea with the duck. (more soon)
Duck family among the tourists. These pictures were taken by Chan Kyung Kim. (more soon)
Duck, the Tourist Fable: Comic
During the time, I made tons of drawings about camera ducks and tourists. It developed into a loose story about permanent tourist, temporary tourist, and everyday tourist. Idea was to combine it into a zine or animation. I didn't have a chance to finish that, but the sources were used extensively in making of the 'Tourist and Traveller' Exhibition at EYEBEAM. Hundres of images were scanned and organized with help of (again, super!) Katie Bode.
Exhibition:
The project was presented at the gallery along the backdrop of large painting and installations. This was done with help of many friends, including Cheon pyo Lee. (more soon)
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Following are some pictures that the duck took during the show. When the duck was working, the prints were given away to the viewers. The duck used about 300 prints during the show. |
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