Bringing Aerial Photography to the Masses—One Squid Kite at a Time.
What the Prospect Hill group learns tonight will help them make aerial photography easier for others—provided they can get anything in the air at all.
Public Lab is designed a bit like that squid kite—one big head, many arms.
“Kite mapping and balloon mapping have been a cornerstone of the work that Public Lab does,” says Bronwen Densmore, the Lab’s community manager.
The group on Prospect Hill has taken the advice of one online contributor—to balance the kite with a carabiner when it starts to list to one side.
“People have worked out a lot of great solutions for rigging and stabilizing [the kites and balloons], and getting different kinds of things up in the air,” says Densmore.
Still, the new mini-balloons and kites are “prototyping kits”—Public Lab–speak for “not quite there yet.” Prospect Hill is acting as a proving ground, where wrinkles can be found and ironed out.
On its first flight up the squid kite string, the tiny camera is upside down.
“We just did some science!” He then jogs over to a passerby: “Hey, did you see that camera fall out of the sky?” Throughout the exercise, neighbors stop to ask questions, take a turn on the strings, or just gawk skyward for a moment.
“One thing about the kites and balloons that’s really nice is that they force you to be in the space that you’re mapping,” says Densmore.