Reminds me of the boost button on Polaroid's ID-2: https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/physical-electrical-digital/items/show/1017 https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/physi

Reminds me of the boost button on Polaroid's ID-2: https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/physical-electrical-digital/items/show/1017 https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/physical-electrical-digital/it... > One of the Polaroid ID-2’s most important design features was a “boost” button that when pressed would boost the flash exactly 42%. Polaroid advertised this spectial feature for general lighting pruposes. However, researchers and artists assert that the ID-2 camera was actually created for and catering specifically to South Africa’s policies of Apartheid., and boost button, The white minority South African government largely used this camera for dompas, or the passbooks, which helped to sustain the Apartheid regime via surveillance. This was partially because the device was portable, fast at taking and developing photos, and created difficult to forge images because of its powerful lamination. But the most compelling feature was that the boost button increased the flash’s intensity by the exact amount it took to account for the extra light absorbed by black skin: 42%. > Polaroid claimed only 20% of the film they sold in South Africa ended up being used for passports and according to Polaroid in 191, only 65 systems were sold before sales were stopped, and none of those systems were sold to government agencies. However, the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement countered that sales were still going through indirect channels. Polaroid continued lying from 1971 to 1978, claiming that they had ceased supplying materials to the regime, when in fact there was an elaborate shell game which allowed them to sell through a third party (Caulfield 2015).