Ceci est une caméra has many physical and conceptual layers.
A device composed of a small camera module, a single-board-computer, wifi module and batteries, is hidden behind a silkscreen print on plexiglas and a reflective mirror film. Everything is embedded in the space of a normal frame for pictures. A custom-built AI-based software application running on the onboard computer analyzes the frames and takes photographs of the audience at its discretion.Once the photograph is taken, it is displayed on a eInk screen mounted on another frame and placed on the wall near the main piece.
It is also available a second version of the same work which prints and ejects photos from a small slit at the bottom of the frame, but it is not suitable for large exhibition as it requires some maintenance (Eg. manual insertion of the photographic paper).
The reference to Magritte's "La Trahison des images" in the title is clear.
"And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe", I'd have been lying!".
In this case instead, the instant camera in the piece is not merely a representation, but is the real object itself and, possibly, even more. It has changed its design but it has kept all of the qualities that make it an instant camera. Thanks to technology, electronics and software programming, the representation becomes only the trick used to hide and disguise the object itself. This internal mechanism is not used to self-destruct the work (Banksy) but instead allows it to automatically generate something new.
The piece, from being observed, starts observing and creating on its own.
