For my final project, I think I’d like to make a photo booth that scares the shit out of you and then takes a picture of your terrified face. This was definitely inspired by our Halloween midterm projects, specifically my classmates' Alvaro and Sidney’s skeleton-behind-a-leather-canvas project. I realize it won’t be Halloween anymore, and that maybe scaring people is out of context, but I would argue that this will make the element of surprise that much better precisely because it won’t be Halloween.
I’ve also been trying to think of ways to incorporate my background in photography into my ITP work, and I think this is an interesting way to do it. I also just began my fabrication class, and it would be nice to put some of those skills to use.
Photo booths are relatively simple. You go in, you pay a fee and/or press a button, it takes your picture, and then cute little prints of your pictures slide out of a little slot somewhere. Classic. Timeless. What I want to do is create a photo booth that scares you a fraction of a second before it clicks the shutter on the camera. I would like to create the scare using something physical, also. Some sort of terrifying automaton that jumps out at you.
Small, consumer-grade printers are easy enough to find for a reasonable price, and I’d probably use one of my old cameras for materials. I also have some strobes I can use for it as well, so I think I have the more expensive aspects taken care of.
Beyond that, it’s really just building a small booth with a curtain and wiring and programming the whole thing up. I haven’t decided my scaring mechanism yet. More on that later. But the photo booth parts are pretty straightforward in my mind (famous last words, right?).