dessalles

I noted before how the 21st century seems keenly intent on trying to capture and compile a single recording of all of reality. But whether or not a networked crowd of people and things can manage to stitch together the torrent of videos, photographs, sounds and descriptions into a single digital account is maybe more than I’d like to tackle at the moment. What I do want to consider now is, operating under the assumption that everything is recorded, what changes? And more specifically what I’m interested are the new assumptions, behaviors, production practices and consumption patterns that might emerge in such a future.

Consider Casio’s newest marquee digital camera. The EX-F1’s draw-dropping top-line spec is that it can capture sixty 6-megapixel photographs in one second. That’s 60fps at a fairly handsome resolution (it can also push 1200fps at 336 x 96). But the thinky bit is the workflow that’s been designed around this capability. The EX-F1 can be set to continuously capture images so that the camera offers it’s owner 60 photographs, 30 of which were recorded before the shutter button was ever pressed.

The EX-F1 reduces photography to a matter of casually marking interesting moments in time and seeking them out later. Photographers are freed of the interaction costs incurred synchronizing shutters with fleeting scenes - attention can be shifted to framing, focus and exposure. Less concerned with missing a vital moment, the photographer faces a new challenge of supplying enough storage so that nothing is missed. Anticipation and reaction are replaced by flash memory and search.

Casio’s camera is by no means a major technological breakthrough - it’s just the next step in a long-running progression. But consider coupling the EX-F1 with Adobe’s Light-Field Lens (pictured above) which enables a camera to capture a single scene from 19 angles, each with a different focal point. Similar to how the EX-F1’s burst mode allows photographers to single out what they want at a later time, the Light-Field Lens enables them to ‘focus’ the camera after the photograph is taken.

Adobe’s fancy lens is nothing new either. But these two examples should get you thinking about how these capable devices will alter our approach to recording - turn the device on now, isolate the product later. If everything is recorded, capturing a moment becomes more similar to archeology.