Faux Security Cameras, Functional Lights

John Nack point­ed this out via FaceBook. It reminds me of when I was 16, just for fun, I built a non-working sur­veil­lance cam­era out of a small box, an emp­ty toi­let paper roll, a dis­card­ed cam­era lens, and black paint. I mount­ed it on the wall in my bed­room, ran a wire from the faux cam­era into the dry­wall, and cre­at­ed a small pow­er light out of a hot glue stick hol­lowed out with red flu­o­res­cent paint inside. Every vis­i­tor to my room (and a bed­room is a 16 year old’s hang out) thought it was real. The reac­tions ranged from unease to malaise, wav­ing at it to full on show-off per­for­mances in front of it.