RVC4

Came across this article today on AIGA. It’s an interesting look at the era of Polaroid film started in 1947, when the first instant camera, named the Polaroid Land Camera Model 95, was introduced. Invented by Edwin Land (Land camera, get it?) who founded the Polaroid company in 1937. Polaroid interestingly enough started out offering polarized sunglasses.

What’s so amusing to me about this is that Polaroid is ditching instant film for digital photography. Which when you think about it doesn’t offer the instant satisfaction of a physical image mere seconds after you take the picture (I realize that it usually takes around a minute for the picture to fully develop, but you know what I mean).

This also touches on a broader idea that has been taking up precious space in my brain lately. I get scared the further away we get from physical things, things you can hold and touch and smell and feel. We have mp3’s (I don’t think I’ve purchased an actual CD in over a year), e-books, digital photo albums. I read a comic awhile back called The Surrogates. Amazing comic, I loved the artwork, the dialogue, the story. But according to this book the future is a lonely place where we all have “Surrogates”, or cyborgs, robots, that we control from home. Humans are no longer leaving their houses, they “plug in” and go about their day as a robot.

Does that not terrify you? And although small, I feel that things like no more instant film, and downloadable music, and movies over the internet, and electronic books, they are the starting point.