a beautifully sunny idea for what will hopefully be a beautifully sunny weekend…  welcome to the Disposable Memory Project, which has the simple aim of telling the stories of cameras left in random places around the world.  the idea is that people will pick them up, take a few photos and pass them on, with the cameras and the photos they hold eventually returning home.

it's a simple, elegant idea for an age when experiences have higher value than things, when social aggregation can be virtual and where narratives aren't predetermined or linear.  I don't know if a brand is behind this, but I bet plenty wish they were.

at the heart of this idea are jeopardy and mystery.  if I leave a camera somewhere will it be found?  by whom?  what photos will they take and will those photos make it home?  there are no guarantees; something that feels exciting and different in a world – and marketing landscape – where amazing solutions vie for our attention and unbeatable answers clamour for our questions.

Mediation finds it more than a little comforting that in an on-demand world where we expect to be able to get whatever we want whenever we want it, some things aren't set in stone.  I intend to join the project and set me own camera on it's way.  I look forward to the uncertainty of its fate, and meeting – through shared virtual experience – some other people on the way.