Tony Scarlatos
anthony.scarlatos@stonybrook.edu

Title:
"The Camera Obscura"

Synopsis:
Camera Obscura means Dark Room in Latin. It describes a phenomenon, first discovered by Aristotle, that light entering a small opening in an otherwise dark room can be refocused on a plane, such as a wall or table, giving an exact image (although reversed) of the world outside.

As an architectural novelty, the Camera Obscura was a feature of elaborate Victorian gardens. The addition of a lens to help focus the image allowed artists, such as Vermeer, to use a portable Camera Obscura to create very detailed images. These portable drawing aids paved the way for the modern film camera, where the light is focused through an aperture on a plane coated with a light-sensitive material (silver oxide on glass and later celluloid - the negative). Today's digital cameras differ only in that the light is focused on an array of CCD's or CMOS sensors.

Objective:
To use graphics (photographs, paintings,and Historical documents), video, and animation to illustrate the phenomenon and relate its history. Audio will provide narration and background music. A 3D model of a Camera Obscura will be built. A trip to photograph the Camera Obscura in Greenport is planned, and a clip from the movie, "Girl with the Pearl Earring", will be used. Additional clips from "Tim's Vermeer" will be used.

Audience:
It's anticipated that the audience for this piece would be high school and undergraduate students interested in art and photography, history, or optics and physics.

Sources:

Greenport Camera Obscura -
http://brightbytes.com/cosite/greenport.html

The movie, "Girl with the Pearl Earring" -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring_(film)

The movie, "Tim's Vermeer" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0pxP8PUIKU

"Reverse-Engineering a Genius", By Kurt Andersen, Vanity Fair, 11/29/2013 -
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/11/vermeer-secret-tool-mirrors-lenses

Camera Obscura from National Geographic, May 2011 -
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/camera-obscura/oneill-text

"How to Make Your Own Room with a View", National Geographic -
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/ngm-camera-obscura

Vermeer -
http://www.vermeerscamera.co.uk/home.htm

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/camera_obscura/co_one.html#.V9q2gsfFVtu

Illustrations -