Changing Perspectives: GoPros and the Homeless

Recently, I read an article about a new organization based in San Francisco fighting to change perspectives of homelessness featured in the SF Gate, a local newspaper in San Francisco. Called Homeless GoPro, the organization's goal is to "build empathy through firsthand experiences." They do so by strapping a GoPro, a small camera that is typically used in extreme sports in order to give viewers the perspective of the person using the camera, onto a homeless person. In this way, people are able to literally see from a homeless person's perspective. The organization makes videos from these viewpoints--as the homeless are panhandling, as they are selling copies of the Street Sheet, as they walk around and talk about their experiences with homelessness.

San Francisco is currently in undergoing gentrification, most often simplified as the fight between the wealthy tech newcomers and the poor/working class. Often, technology is vilified, as seen in several cases where people wearing Google Glass have been harassed or have had their technology stolen (but perhaps it is just unintelligent to plainly wear a two thousand dollar gadget in neighborhoods where people are struggling to stay housed). So in the midst of this, it was very interesting for me to see a collaboration between technology and poverty alleviation through Homeless GoPro, showing that perhaps technology can also help homelessness, that it does not always have to be a bad thing. Interestingly enough, the Homeless GoPro project has not received much negativity. It began in early April, and its video (seen below) has had 40,000 hits on YouTube and very few "dislikes." Also, the co-creative director of the project is a 44 year old homeless man, who has been homeless since he was 14 years old.

However, there are some concerns as to this Homeless GoPro project. I've read a couple of studies about auto-photography, which is a type of participatory research/activism where groups are given cameras (usually disposable) in order to take pictures from their perspectives. The researchers write that participants could endanger themselves by taking such pictures of other homeless people and having a camera-- and this is just a camera. Also, the participants of such projects were not always willing to show their complete day-to-day life, because some were afraid that their public "private" spaces and sleeping spaces would be found (especially now that sleeping/sitting in public has been so criminalized). On the other hand, having an expensive item like a GoPro could really endanger the homeless. However, the organization has taken into account, saying that during filming, volunteers are on-site in order to prevent anything from happening. (But does this somehow detract from the its authenticity?)

The Homeless GoPro project seems like a well-intentioned project with a means of really changing perception of homelessness by virtually allowing people to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes." But, as always, there are critiques. Do the homeless really need to exploit their privacy and share their lives in such a personal manner simply to garner empathy from the rest of society? Yes, it is definitely a way of having people look at homelessness differently--but should it have to be this way?

Can using GoPros build empathy for the homeless?  What do you think?

You can check out their website at www.homelessgopro.org.