WearCam
On Friday, October 23, 1998 from 4:00 - 5:30, Steve Mann, inventor of WearComp/WearCam (wearable computer invention with wearable camera), made a free public keynote presentation titled I am a Camera: Humanistic Intelligence is the Medium; our Everyday Living is the Message. On Saturday, October 24, 1998 during the day, our speakers presented their extensions of McLuhan. During the evening, a spirited banquet featured Derrick de Kerckhove debating Arthur Kroker on Understanding New Media: Connected Intelligence or Digital Delirium? On Sunday, new scholars presented their work and the McLuhan Program International was launched.
I AM A CAMERA: Humanistic Intelligence is the medium; our everyday living is the message
Just as:
- wheel is extension of leg, and
- radio is extension of voice,
So is:*the camera an extension of the eye,
- the computer an extension of the brain, and wiring, circuits, and the internet an extension of the nervous system.
WearComp/WearCam (wearable computer, wearable camera) experiments/inventions of 1970s and early 1980s:
- made above metaphor a reality
- transformed body into not just a camera, but also a networked cyborg entity.
- body thus became a `photoborg' entity: cybernetic organism always seeking best picture, in all facets of ordinary day--to--day living.
- mediated reality: altered perception of vision used to attain a better understanding of light and shade.
- mediated reality applications: toward personal solitude and the prevention of the Theft of Solitude. Preventing the Theft of Attention.
- later evolved to Wearable Wireless Webcam, early 1990s experiment in connectivity and shared visual space.
- Invention evolved in coming years.
- clothing=extension of our skin: when endowed with networked computational capability, becomes social fabric of community.
- neighbourhoods of people who are cameras could also reduce crime, and serve as alternative to Orwellian world of ubiquitous surveillance
Spoken at: Many Dimensions: The Extensions of Marshall McLuhan
