I had a small epiphany during the weekend as I thought about my idea with the hidden camera - CCTV portrait. Instead of hiding the camera I thought why not expose the camera?

It is the hidden camera that often exposes the person so the roles are now reversed- expose the camera instead of the person.

After listening to Olafur Elliason talking about his work on moma.org I felt really inspired by the idea of "seeing yourself seeing".

The mirror is there to resemble the image that the camera might be picking up. I think I would either not show the image that the camera is picking up or I would show it in another part of the building. There is this instant misconception because of the mirror you sort of forget about what the camera is seeing.

However, I think it could be interesting not to show what information the camera is picking up as this may make people think about how often their image is captured by a camera but they never see the footage. There would probably be an element of frustration about this but I think that makes it more interesting.

I thought what's the point of involving hidden cameras when that's something I find quite horrible about day to day life. I don't like the connotations of spying on people and I don't think that I want to make people feel uncomfortable at the thought of this so I would rather they know they are being watched by a camera but maybe they will never see what is see's only what they are seeing.

hmmmmm