Living without sanctuary

Through their close interconnection with technology, humans and their needs within society are rapidly changing. Technology slowly but firmly introduces us to new ways of living. This process happens so smoothly, that we don’t really get a chance to choose or refuse this new way of life. One of these socially influential technologies is photography. Apart from its relevance as an art practice, its general role has shifted from a memory-creating tool to an even more documentative one. The camera can be considered a prosthesis which enables our eyes to see more, and differently. It expands our visual abilities as well as influencing our memory. At the same time though, it might disable us when it comes to experiencing a moment authentically. How much do we gain and how much do we lose when introducing photography into a moment? The camera as a prosthesis has already grown to be a crucial organ for human beings, but it remains a technical extension for our bodies. Could evolution respond to this new need of ours by genetically and organically adapting our bodies in some way? By making use of speculative design methods, this project explores the possibility of a future society in which evolution has equipped us with an organic documentative organ as a response to our current needs, based on our relationship with photography. Comparable to lungs that provide us with oxygen, the new organ’s purpose would be to create a perfect documentation of one’s life and to communicate it to others. In this possible future society, our bodies would naturally and automatically fulfil the task of constant documentation, which would take away the option of choosing which moments to document and share. In other words, we would be the observing subject and the observed object, anywhere, anytime. What would life be like in a world that is public space, one where there is no sanctuary? How would we interact? What would that mean to concepts like security, memory, empathy? And first and foremost, what does that mean to life as we are living it now? Through imagining a possible future society, this project aims to raise questions about our current use of photography and the surrounding ethics