Assignment 3

Here's My Assignment 3

(Note: click on the GIFs to see larger versions of them)

I loved that Assignment 3 was so full of possibilities. There were so many things I could have mapped, but I knew right from the beginning that I wanted try using my trail camera for this project. A trail or game camera is a waterproofed camera equipped with motion sensors and, often, infrared light capabilities for taking pictures at night. They are designed to be set up outside and left for long periods of time to monitor game by taking a picture every time they sense movement. I thought that it would be very interesting to use for mapping because every picture it takes is from the exact same vantage point, with the same stationary features like bushes and trees, and only the subject changes.

                I thought to set up the trail camera on a telephone pole by the road after my dad suggested to me, half-jokingly, that I could try to map the garbage truck that was expected that night. The trail camera did indeed capture the whole garbage collecting process, allowing me to see clearly for the first time something that had happened in the dead of night once a week for my whole life. Perhaps more interestingly, it also took pictures of the every-day occurrences on the road that I hadn't thought about or expected. It did take many pictures of the empty road as cars tripped the sensor and then quickly sped out of frame, but it also captured the things that were moving slowly enough to stay in one place for a moment. I found sequences of the mail lady delivering mail, the UPS man delivering packages, and that the camera had taken two photos a day of a school bus driving past it. I learned that the neighbor's dog walks up and down the road at night (which you can see in panel two).

              I used these images to create GIF animations that map the commonplace things that happen regularly on the road. I seem to be completely unaware of these things happening despite their regular occurrence from day to day. I think that this provides a rather interesting perspective, as they illustrate how predictable and reliable the things that I take for granted can be. I set the GIFs to loop forever and I hope that this shows how repetitive many of the day-to-day functions of society can appear from the limited perspective of my driveway. After working on this assignment I wonder what else I don’t even realize I’m not noticing or acknowledging.

In addition, I now know for sure that the garbage men are not aliens with tentacle arms and antennae. How could I have been certain before that they weren’t?