Ritual Camera: Exploring Domestic Technology to Remember Everyday Life

Abstract

Looking back, people often value their memories of everyday life experiences. However, people rarely create media to remember everyday life, despite the omnipresence of (photographic) technology. The authors' research-through-design process explores media creation aimed at capturing repeated events in everyday life. They explore how media can be created over time by combining multiple instances. The design of Ritual Camera explores two aspects of this process: the potential of a domestic stationary camera and the appreciation of more abstract visuals of repeated events. In this case study, they focus on capturing daily family dinners. Findings show that different abstractions hold different values for people and depend on the envisioned use. Overall, showing the diversity of experiences is appreciated more than illustrating the average situation. By approaching abstract media as cue creation, the authors illustrate that, rather than recording everything and striving for total recall, mnemonic technologies could benefit from selective automated media creation both to value the present and for remembering in the future. This article is part of a special issue on domestic pervasive computing.