The 1000-Year Camera: Capturing a Millennium in One Photo

Researcher Jonathon Keats from the University of Arizona’s School of Art has invented a fascinating camera called the "Millennium Camera." This camera is designed to take just one photo over a span of 1000 years.

Currently, the Millennium Camera is fixed on Tumamoc Hill, continuously exposing a shot of the city of Tucson below. In 1000 years, it will capture the changes of the city in a single image.

We can think of this camera as a type of "pinhole camera," utilizing the principle of pinhole imaging. The structure of the camera is similar to the pinhole imaging boxes we made as kids.

The camera's exterior is a 24-karat gold leaf with a pinhole-sized opening. Light passes through this hole into a small copper cylinder mounted on a steel rod. The cylinder is coated with thin layers of rose madder dye, a type of oil paint pigment.

Over 1000 years, the light reflected from Tucson will gradually cause the dye to fade, creating a unique image after a millennium.

Jonathon Keats believes that the rose madder dye will fade at the right rate. He says this is an educated guess, and he is confident that the camera will remain sealed for 1000 years.

What will this image look like in 1000 years?

In a thousand years, everything will change, and this camera will capture both stability and transformation. According to Jonathon, scenes that have changed will appear like multiple images overlapping in the photo.

What is the significance of this camera?

Jonathon Keats, an experimental philosopher, created this camera to encourage people to imagine the future a thousand years from now.

However, based on current feedback, most people feel pessimistic about the future, believing that in 1000 years, people will see a version of Tucson that is worse than today.

What do you think?

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