Traffic Cam Photobooth is a website that allows anybody to locate their nearest publicly available traffic camera in Catalunya, especially Barcelona, and use it to take pictures of themselves. While these cameras are ostensibly intended for traffic, they also serve to acclimate us to the idea that constant monitoring is an everyday part of life in the city. No matter the target of this surveillance, it’s clear from looking at the map that most people in Catalunya, particularly Barcelonans, get unconsentingly captured by the lens of at least one camera - if not several - every day. TCP offers visitors an engaging and lighthearted way to engage with this very serious topic by drawing attention to these easily ignored cameras. People can use their feeds to take pictures of themselves, spreading the knowledge of this sprawling surveillance apparatus through fun self-portraits designed to be shareable online.
This project is a fork of the original work done by WTTDOTM, now featuring data specifically for Catalunya, with a special focus on Barcelona. This is not the first project to focus on traffic camera surveillance; other developers and artists such as boringcactus, Dries Depoorter, and more have all done work with these feeds. I recommend anyone interested in this also check them out.