Sams World: Stepping into the Polaroid Matrix at Maker Faire (video)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Stepping into the Polaroid Matrix at Maker Faire (video)

Sometimes it's the simplest questions that lead to the most important innovation -- other times it's more that they're just plain fun to answer. Take the one asked by Grand Rapids, MI-artist, Sam Blanchard: what would the Wachowski Brothers' bullet-time effect look like, were it shot on, say 20 Polaroids, instead of a room full of expensive digital devices? The answer, naturally, can be found in the Polaroid Matrix, a circle of cameras on display at Maker Faire in New York, this weekend. The Kickstarter success story arranges the cameras into a circle -- a subject can be sat in the middle, or the cameras can be oriented outward, to take a panorama of the surrounding environment. Once the rig is fired up, the cameras make that familiar Polaroid warm up hum -- times 20. The actual photographing happens almost in an instant, with 20 flashes. The photographer walks around the circle and collects 20 photos, which are bound into a photographic flipbook. Check out a video of the Polaroid Matrix in action, after the jump.

Gallery: Stepping into the Polaroid Matrix at Maker Faire (video)