If you don’t see a video here, sorry. :(
If you don’t see a video here, sorry. :(
Overview
Featured Photos
Videos
Photos
Observations
Inspiration
Tools
Hello. My name is Erik Dahl and the “Side View Mirror Project” is a little something I’ve been working on my free time. I have a point-and-shoot camera (Panasonic DMC-LX2) with me at all times, and I started taking pictures of drivers in their side view mirrors while stopped at stop lights.
What is captured here is a record of these tiny portals into other drivers’ worlds.
This is an ongoing project. I started actively taking these pictures in 2008.
If you have any comments about the project, send me a note at thedahlpod@gmail.com
You can view more of my projects at:
A police officer in Pittsburgh making “eye contact” with the lens.
This guy expressed at least three clearly visible emotions in the course of one phone conversation at a single stop light.
Tiny portals into drivers’ worlds
Side View Mirror Project
The photos below represent a small selection of the total number of photos organized in rough chronological order.
Videos from my Pecha Kucha PGH presentation.
Taking these pictures changed the way I drive. I used to be very end-state oriented when I would drive. When I started taking pictures for this project I stopped thinking about where I was going, and started watching mirrors and looking for red lights. As designers, its important to remember that the goal and orientation of the user dramatically impacts their experiences.
While stopped at red lights, people often touch their face with their hands, which is a physical manifestation of anxiety and frustration.
Its interesting to just look at the form of the mirrors, in and of themselves.
Talking on cell phones is a very typical activity for people to engage in while driving in there cars, but tool use isn’t limited to cell phones. People also interact with headphones, drinks, cigarettes, pets and sunglasses.
Some people tend to gaze off into nothingness and lose themselves during the red light, while others stare at the light waiting for it to change.
When you have a camera in your front windshield, some people tend to stare quizzically at me. A vivid reminder that my presence as an observer inherently impacts the behavior within the social system that I am observing.
A few casual observation and emergent patterns.
The Collier Classification System for Very Small Objects
The Highway Expedition
Andrew Bush’s 66 Drives
The Stray Shopping Cart Project
The only thing that I use for this project is my Panasonic DMC-LX2 point-and-shoot camera.
There are a few projects by other people that have been and continue to be an inspiration for my Side View Mirror Project. All of them are amazing and worth checking out if you aren’t familiar with them already.
The tools I use on this project.
© 2009 thedahlpod labs
