Rather than show you the image you just snapped and let you decide for yourself, this camera by Andrew Kupresanin (I found at the daily what) tells you if it was worth it or not, in friendly glowing numbers displaying a percentage “aesthetic rating”.
“As this novel technology improves and works its way into consumer devices, what effect will it have on individual preference and our creative process? Will new objects and possibilities arise?”
Once I got over the initial urge to stab my eyes out with forks at the thought of having my taste scored by an miniature committee android, I thought I’d actually quite like to have one of these cameras, precisely because translating aesthetic judgement into a percentage it is necessarily arbitrary, irrelevant, and hysterically funny. But why stop there? How about four lights for “agreeable” “beautiful”, “sublime” and “good”, also?, or plotting your selection on a Bourdieuan graph?
Anyway its a nice change from seeing the picture straight away, and a reminder, as I giggle at the numbers, that I have free will. Yes I definitely want one.
