Is von Bismarck’s Image Fulgurator be the death of photography?
Stealth imagery. It sounds more spy than photographic, doesn’t it? One man is bringing stealth imaging to photography. Now say what that will inevitably lead to out loud: stealth imagery marketing. It’s real. It’s here. It’s intrusive. And viral marketers everywhere are salivating over it.
How does this nefarious technology work? The inventor of it, Julius von Bismarck, modified a standard manual Minolta SLR camera into more of a triggered projector of sorts. It holds slides, and uses a new, patent pending technology to intrude on the happy memories and art of others. He calls it his Image Fulgurator.
How does it do that? When an artist is snapping a photo they’ve spent time setting up, or a family gets a stranger to take a picture at the nearest tourist attraction, the flash their camera triggers this device to project a stealth image from the slide in it onto their photograph. Intrusive, annoying and a surefire way to stop photos from being taken by people who are already sick to death of marketers trying to find any avenue into their stream of consciousness.
The patent filer and inventor, von Bismarck, is already receiving thousands of emails from viral marketing spammers who are downright drooling over this technology and its potential for ruining private moments in favor of pure commercial greed. These spam blasting scammers haven’t been this excited about a new technology since the discovery that ads would eventually be able to be projected right into a passerby’s head as if it were their thoughts.
Perhaps Wired Magazine said it best in their interview with von Bismarck:
Now, imagine for a moment that an ad agency gets hold of this. You couldn’t take a photograph of a tourist attraction ever again without worrying that some marketing crap would be pushed into your camera. As Julius told me, “I see it as a piece of media art. It could be a dangerous attack on media. [But] if people do shit with it, I feel bad.”
I have trouble finding his empathetic core in all of this. I don’t really care about his art class, or his degree, or his great love of playing pranks and his invention that is moving at the speed of light. I care only about the inevitable marketing schemes that will arise from this very cool, but very dangerous technology. I care, and I wonder when we will finally speak with our wallets and say enough is enough, boycotting the most intrusive companies, those who spam out email, invade our cell phones, want to beam directly into our heads and now invade our recorded memories.
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July 1st, 2008
It sounds like it doesn’t work unless the flash goes off on your camera. So that might be one way around it.
Also, finding the device itself and vandalizing it could become popular.
July 8th, 2008
If this turns out to be the end of annoying-flash-from-brainless-digicam photography, I would even put some money into this project …
September 18th, 2008
Ive seen the so-called Fulgurator when it won its prize at ARS Electronica. Its total crap. The most interesting thing it reveals is the how little people understand technology. Even as Julius Von Bismarck was attempting to demonstrate it live, he had to ask members in the audience not to use their cameras as it wouldnt work. His well-practiced girlfriend managed to eventually capture an image which had been ‘modified’ and even then it was overexposed and blurry.
Another intersting point is that the ‘fulgurated’ image of Obama which is being touted to support his ‘Guerilla’ tactics never turned up anywhere in the press.. could it be that no-one elses images were manipulated?
Not one ‘fulgurated’ image has been presented that hasnt been taken by his girlfriend.
I fail to understand why this is groundbreaking since it is basically a projector…and one that doesnt work very well either.