My name is Taeyoon Choi. I am a tourist
from South Korea. (*take a picture with camera) After few tours to
exotic places and exhibiting internationally, I came to realize the
pictures I take are just like that of other tourists. Suddenly the
act of taking pictures seem to become tedious act from yesterday. I
questioned, while new technology is making our life more convenient,
automatic home electronics are replacing our labor, why is there no a
camera that takes photograph on its own. So I decided to liberate
cameras from human operation. I was also looking into some
pre-electronic Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, and discovered a
French inventor Jacques de Vauncanson's Mechanical Digesting duck
that didn't actually digest but simulated the act of digesting. The
duck seemed to be a proper metaphor for they flock and migrate, just
like the tourists. Therefore I am making a 'Magical Image Digesting
Duck', by hacking digital camera, printer, vacuum cleaner, mp3 player
and connecting them by a single microcontroller. The duck, Charlie
travels to many tourists spots in New York City. The duck takes a
picture when it detects flash light from other camera, prints it out
or posts them on the Net via WIFI. The project is realized through a
commission for resident artist at EYEBEAM Art and Technology Center.
Www.camerautomata.org www.tyshow.org
Prototype in progress
Taeyoon Choi is a Seoul-based Artist and Tourist. Choi delivers critical perspective on the contemporary use of digital technology by humorous interventions and participatory practice. Choi's works have appeared in I.S.E.A 2006 (San Jose), Upgrade! International (Oklahoma), Dislocate 2007(Yokohama) , among others. Choi was the Artist in Residence at Art Center Nabi(2006), Art Space Hue(2007), and his project has been funded by Arts Council Korea(2007). Choi has a B.F.A at S.A.I.C (Performance/2004) and M.S. at KAIST (Culture Technology/2007). 
The ‘Charlie. Camerautomata’ is a new project by Taeyoon
Choi , Recipient of the 2008 Commission for Resident Artist at the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in NYC.
The ‘Camerautomata’ ('Camera'+'Automata') is a 'Magical Image Digesting
Robotic Duck'. Charlie, the duck, is a participatory 'Image-
Technology' for photographic intervention
in public spaces. The project explores the system in which digital
images are produced and consumed in urban space as well as information
space. Where as the conventional image technology (ex:cameras) isolate people(ex.tourists) from
their immediate environment, 'Camerautomata' brings strangers together
by the act of photographing. The duck digests and defecates the photograph and also posts on his flickr site via WIFI. The duck is a eclectic collage of hacking automatic electronics (digital camera/ portable printer/
motorized decoy/ roomba/ etc) and controlled by a microprocessor, in order for the digital
camera to
take pictures on its own without human interruption. It is partly
inspired by 'Defecating Duck' by Jacque de Vaucanson. This
website includes postings from Choi and project interns. The project
stages various public events from May to July, in New York City.
Welcome!
7.19. Last day of exhibition/ Tourist Photo Workshop
Its coming to the end of the exhibition.
This saturday at 3pm. charlie and myself will be present at eyebeam's gallery.
we will teach you how to take picture like tourists.
you will have picture taken by charlie.
also the last day to see the paintings, photos, and exhibition
please come to eyebeam
540 w.21st st NYC
Images duck digested
so the project has been enjoying media publicity recently. thank you!
Some people asked what are the pictures of digestion look like. Here I present few samples. More at the flickr set. Also check the Maldigested images here or whole set here
To remind you how this works. The duck takes picture when it detects flash light/ and also everytime it exits 'mode' of operation. There are few modes including 'driving', 'waiting', and 'printing'. Therefore some pictures are obviously of people taking picture at the duck and others are accidental.
People taking picture of the duck
Say Hello to Devon, who helped greatly in coding and electronics!
The duck is a great capturer of night life scene in the city.
Also, it takes alot of pictures of people's butt, because of how low it is and it's face looking up.
This is a beautiful picture of accidental moment.
="What is this? Does it Quack?"
Sunghun Kim, who helped greatly with fabrication of the duck.
Katie Bode also was a great help.
Tourist and Travellers Exhibition Opening
Main Window by 21st street.
Exhibition space inside. platform for ducks
last minute wiring and coding
the wonderful people who realized this project
Devon, me, Sunghun, Katie, and Lenny
The opening ceremony
Picture credit: EYEBEAM & Christine Butler
Duck Out to a Park
First of all, apologies for not updating the blog past week before and after the exhibition opening. It has been chaotic here in Eyebeam. I am happy to post few pictures from the Walking Tour with Charlie, from Last Saturday. It was raining on and off, and we had to make last minute change to cancel the Central Park, and went to a near by park in 23rd/11th in Chelsea. It was pouring rain 20 minutes before the event and it started again as soon as we finished.
This event was made possible with Interactivos? NYC. Most of the people in the picture are participants of the workshop.
The duck, being his moody and flaky himself, was not digesting images correctly for first few minutes. We had to change the code on site to make it work.
Duck was going around the park, interacting with tourists, kids, and artists.
Look at here!
Duck in park
went out to photo shoot today. Thanks Chang Kyung!
We, the team, have been working day and night finishing fabrication and fixing codes.
It will all unveil in JUNE 21st at EYEBEAM CENTER for Art and Technology, NYC!
Thanks to. Sunghoon, Cheon pyo, Ernest Woo, Eugene Ahn, Katie Bode, Lenny Corea, Chang Gyung, and Devon Rueckner, and numerous others at Eyebeam.
The last few days have been intense fabrication. We managed to finish the duck and airbrush the colors over the weekend. Thanks a lot for all who helped.
The manual hacking camera has a bit of trouble last night and I did not manage to fix in time for the photo shoot. So the duck was not working properly. (again, it was simply cable connection problem)
As for photoshoot.
Fulton Ferry Pier at DUMBO was full of tourist coming to see other tourists in London. Not many people were interested in the duck. Also the non functioning added to the distraction.
I soon learned there are a lot of attractions in tourist sites, and tourists come to see what they already know. Some people responded warmly and enthusiastically to the duck. We had better luck at the Central Park.
Some ideas I shared with Chang Kyung, photographer, was to have big banners, speakers, some sort of thing that grabs peoples attention from far away. Also if the artist or operator is not so apparently near the duck, people will discover its behavior naturally and find it amusing
When I returned to Eyebeam, I worked on the code and electronics with the help of great Devon Rueckner. He managed to hack into the printer to know its status (for example if it is printing or encountering any sort of trouble, such as paper jam or ink shortage. Tomorrow we will try our best to finish coding and build electronic parts of the duck and test it. All individual elements are in working order, its matter of combining them all together and testing them. The project owes greatly to Devon Rueckner for his contribution in constructing the System Logic in which the duck behaves. It is far more sophisticated program then I ever managed to pull off. And the duck will be very close to being autonomous.
So the schedule follows.
Monday: fixing codes/ finishing and painting the square duck.
Tuesday: assembling the duck and test shoot outside of eyebeam
Wednesday: Photo/video shoot in public space/ Editing video/ printing pictures
Thursday: continue editing and printing drawings/ painting walls
Friday: Installing pieces / painting walls
Saturday: the big opening
