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PhotographyToday I want to write about one of the greatest inventions in the sector of art I’ve heard of so far: the Image Fulgurator.
It was invented by the 24 year old German art student Julius von Bismarck.
What does it do? It is a camera that is triggered when another camera that is not too far away uses its flash. But the Image Fulgurator doesn’t simply produce pictures, it uses a flash and and an analogue picture in the camera in order to project that picture onto an object for a very short time; it will therefor appear on the photographs of other people.
Imagine taking a picture of a famous building, just to see it on flames if you check it afterwards in your digital camera; or a huge brandname on a famous building, which clearly wasn’t there when you took the photograph. Or some text on the clothing of a star …
Julius calls the device (translated from German) “apparatus for minimal-invasive manipulation of photographs”, and he thinks of it as an analogue hack. I love the idea.
Here are the technical details, and here is an article about the Image Fulgurator (SZ magazine).
[ the photograph shown above was shot by Richard Wilhelmer; thanks to Verena for sending me the link! ]
July 29th, 2008 at 13:39
Thats one nice piece of tech – but Juilius has to be very carefull indeed: The linked article points out some possible dangers for him in person, but with the possibility to hack pictures even before they are taken, not only guerilla marketing, but also smear campaigns or worse are easily possible: That cross on Obamas lectern that some reporters might take for real, should give you an idea what could become possible…
But a cool idea nevertheless^^
July 29th, 2008 at 14:27
Can’t help but mention that I saw this first, a couple of weeks ago. At nerdcore.de, I think.
Fantastic idea, exactly the kind of thing that makes all the non-art people like me nod and murmur “And that’s why we have art students” ;-)