An artist and philosopher created special cameras to document the next 1,000 years of environmental change.
Experimental philosopher and artist Jonathon Keats designed four of these unique pinhole cameras that will produce four images, each with a 1,000-year long exposure. They will be installed around Lake Tahoe, CA to capture how climate changes alter the scenes. Although we will all be long gone by the time the images are complete, Keats signed a contract with Sierra Nevada College to exhibit the four time-lapse images in the year 3018.
Photo by Ryland West, Tahoe Public Art
The copper pinhole cameras are surprisingly only a few inches long. They work by very slowly imprinting a positive image on to a rose madder pigment. Light comes into the camera through a pinhole on a plate of 24-karat gold. In order to ensure the cameras and images would last, Keats studied the use of copper for longevity in Renaissance paintings.
The unique millennium cameras took years to design and create, but the Tahoe Timescape project is finally ready to unveil and soon install them with the help of Tahoe Public Art. They are currently on display at Nevada College's Tahoe Gallery before being installed on all four sides of Lake Tahoe for the next 1,000 years.
Images used with permission of Jonathon Keats.
Am I reading this correctly? A single,1,000-year long exposure? Not a timelapse? I suppose it has value from the development angle but the final image will be rubbish.
Not if the tripod is steady enough. And the calculations were correct. And we are still around. ;)
I wasn't referring to exposure or stabilization. If you look at the year-long exposure, Mark linked to below, and multiply that by 1,000, you can get an idea of the "muddy" mess, I'm envisioning. And then, how would anyone be able to disassemble it by year, or even century!?
I agree, there's so many factors that will make this more than just a blurry mess, there quite likely won't be any distinguishable landmark. 1000 years ago, Vikings were only just starting to arrive in America. Not a single city was established in the new world. Mountains change, trees grow and fall. I wouldn't even be surprised if the water level rose to an indistinguishable level. 1 year, 10 year exposure, fine. Those could be cool, and realistic, and the artist himself is still around to see the result.
But 1000, what is even the point? Hoping someone discovers it in the future, not knowing what they have found, cracks it open, and effectively destroys the exposure anyway?
Please do enlighten me, I am eager to hear some valid points in favor of this.
Clearly, after 1000 years, the picture will be absolute crap. It will be impossible to distinguish a single element from the landscape after 1000 years of changes.
I think this project is more philosophical than anything else.
If the purpose was really to document the landscape changes caused by climate change, time-lapse photography is the only way to go. It could be a 1000 pictures time-lapse. One picture every year.
Or even one 1 year exposure, each year for 1000 years, that could be cool.
But, as it is, I think Google Maps will make a much better job at documenting changes over time.
Aliens will easily decipher what went wrong...
I'm so curious about the results. Can't wait!
Very cool! There was a photographer here in Toronto who shot year-long images. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/01/01/yearlong_exposure_of_toronto...
A guy in the UK created a successful Kickstarter project to mass produce solargraphy cameras: https://solarcan.co.uk
Neat idea.
Very cool!
Wow the result of this is amazing Mark, thanks for sharing!
There's absolutely zero chance this actually turns into an image, much less four of them. Not without one thousand years worth of maintenance.
There are entirely too many factors which could impact the camera and the exposure negatively. Whatever it is mounted to could simply fall over. A tree would be an obviously poor choice because it'll be dead in 1,000 years. A pole? Erosion could take care of that. Or a falling tree. Or a pissed-off black bear. A bird could land on it and crap on the pinhole.
If you put it low to the ground it could easily become a toy for a bored animal. Or, Shrubbery could grow around it. Rising water could submerge it. Tectonic plates could shift and turn the area into a giant crater. New geologic formations could crush them. Shifting sand, dirt, and debris could also cover them.
Hell, we could have screwed up the Global Climate so bad by then that we've thrown most of North America into an ice age and these things are buried under 200 feet of ice. Then, when the ice melts in a couple million years they get dragged back up into what is currently known as Alaska.
So, 1,000 years of maintenance, plus a little good luck and the continued existence of the human race, or this project is doomed from the start.
"A bird could land on it and crap on the pinhole." I LOLed!
Lol! Hopefully, someone will be monitoring it and keeping it clean if needed.
I like this idea, but, well the images produced are not going to have much going for them other than their history.
What, exactly, is an 'experimental philosopher'?
How the fuck is a single exposure going to show a data for climate change?!?! I thought we only had like ten years left here anyways... 18 years ago... sometimes I truly feel like climate change (used to be global warming) only exists for research funds and good feels.
What else do you feel sometimes?
I believe only a millennial can operate this camera.
Neat
Haha too funny
I often enjoy the photography of Matthew ,Mark, Luke and John and Colleagues. They captured word pictures that we are still looking at. Well some of us. That was over 2000 years ago. This is an amazing idea but I am not smart enough to work it out. I read once how some scientist believe that rocks recorded sounds in the past and someday we might be able to listen to ancient conversations. What we can imagine can come to pass.Now where did I read that? We need a back to the future movie here created by some of our time lapse people. This idea might work better if fstoppers members committed to passing on their images taken in the same place for the next 1000 years.
Same here, I don't quite understand how it will work or turn out, but I hope it does! That would be a cool project for the community!