Always striving for progress, we almost never think about past-age technology as a source of inspiration. Camera lucida was an optical contraption used by old masters to create realistic paintings. Now Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin, two art professors, have launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring this classical gadget back to live. NeoLucida, as its predecessor, uses a prism mounted on an adjustable stand. When looking through the prism, the artist sees the subject of his drawing projected onto the piece of paper in front of him, so he can easily trace it. However, Garcia and Levin have adapted their device for the 21st century: the design is lightweight (0.25 kg), adjustable, and can fit in any bag without difficulty. The two professors are not looking to start a business, their primary aim being to generate interest in media archeology. So, they will produce only 2,500 units and publish their designs with an open-source hardware license, so anyone could produce a NeoLucida.
NeoLucida
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