(re)Framing Photos

URL:
Completed: 2004
Client: The Exploratorium
Funder: The National Science Foundation
The museum exhibit. Up to two users at a time use touchscreens to frame small pieces of a single larger image and write captions. The results are displayed on the upper displays
screenshot of the online version
(re)Framing Photos is a museum exhibit exploring how context affects the way we perceive and understand images. Users frame small pieces of a single larger image and write captions for what they've framed. The exhibit affords use by two people at the same time through adjacent touchscreens and displays. This allows for multiple interpretations of the same image by different people to be created and displayed simultaneously.

I also prototyped a multiuser online version of the exhibit in which users shared a single online space. Multiple users frame the image in "polaroid"-like frames and select from multiple one-word captions. Budget and time limitations prevented the online version from going live.

design: A minimilist approach allows users to focus on the images. The shape of the image frame in the online version suggests a Polaroid, an icon of quick, improvised photography to give users a sense of play and experimentation.

technical:(re)Framing Photos was developed in Director and Flash

my roles: concept development, interaction design, programming, graphic design

photography credit: Amy Snyder

code: