We called it a day and slept on all our ideas. We needed a design that incorporated everything we designed previously. It was then when we researched ‘camera obscura’. We decided to go back to the camera idea but take a different approach that was more engaging, interesting and educational.

To capture an image you must keep the film in complete darkness until it is time to take the picture. Then when you want to record an image you let some light in. This is the concept of a camera in its most basic level. We, however, wanted to take this simplicity to a whole new level and re-create the first ever camera, that is camera obscura.

In fact the term camera is shortened from camera obscura which means dark room in latin.  The principles of camera obscura date back as far as ancient Greece, when Aristotle noticed how ligh passing through a small hole in a darkroom produced an inverted image on the wall opposite.  However evidence shows that camera obscura dates back further than this.  Stone age people may have used camera obscura to produce the worlds first art in cave drawings.  In the 10th century, Arabian scholar Al Hassan used camera obscura to prove scientifically that light travels in straight lines, in the 13th century camera obscura was used by astronomers to view  the and in 16th century camera obscura became an invaluable tool for artists who used it to create drawings with accurate detail and perfect perspective, portable camera obscuras were used for this purpose.

IDEA 5 was to make a portable camera obscura and this became our final idea.

this picture shown above shows our sketches for our final design.

June 2006 Stephen Koplowitz did a installation in NYC called ‘Revealed’. It was a five week public art installation. It was a walk-in camera obscura that offered the public a chance to experience one of the worlds first imaging technologies. The camera was large enough to accomodate up to 25 people at one time. In calibration with Koplowitz achitects Keith Kaseman and Julie Beckman in 2005 began designing the portable camera obscura. The installation was seen by more than 5,000 people over the course of 5weeks. “Almost everyone who experienced the event had never seen a camera obscura and had little or no knowledge on its role in the history of photography.