Camera Lucida Case Study

Patterson’s media archaeological method encourages looking beyond the obvious use of a device to find alternative applications. The camera lucida was clearly useful beyond the arts. Microscopists, biological taxonomists and paleontologists, also employed it and in many instances is still a viable tool in those fields. The botanist (astronomer and chemist too) Sir John Herschel notably employed one for recording plant specimens and landscapes. It is particularly helpful in translating images from small live specimens with a great deal of accuracy. In fact the camera lucida was easily as important to the scientific world as it was to the artistic one. As a scientist invented it, this is not surprising. “Perhaps the most famous example of

The Camera Lucida Company markets a streamline version that is available for $122. It clamps onto a work surface and operates much the same as the original models. The telescoping pole that attaches the lens to the work surface limits its scale. This is a product that is technologically similar to the original and requires no electricity. The NeoLucida is a 21st century version of the camera lucida. This product was brought to life through a “kickstarter” campaign – using modern technology to rebirth old technology and can be obtained for $55 via amazon.com and the MoMA Design Store – web marketing. It has a bendable arm rather than a telescoping one, to make repositioning easier for the user. The design is based on a collection of antique camera lucidas. It too has size limitations just like the

While the original camera lucida operated within networks of artists and scientists it evolved to include a large number of amateurs and to be marketed as a novelty. Now the modern version of the camera lucida is firmly attached to the cloud and multiple vectors. Websites that sell camera lucidas – new and antique, design specifications, DIYs, tutorials, FAQs, history, museum collections, kickstarter campaigns to fund startups for making new versions, David Hockney’s BBC special including the camera lucida, all exemplify that modern networks are so pervasive that even obscure old technologies can find new life within