The camera features a thin sheet of 24k gold with a pinhole that allows light to slowly fade a photo-sensitive surface coated in many thin layers of rose madder. When future generations open its copper cylinder housing, they will see an image of Tucson taken with a 1000-year exposure. (Image credit: University of Arizona)
Residents in the Star Pass neighborhood, west of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, may see something unusual overlooking their town over the next millennia. Known as the Millennium Camera, the device was dreamed up by the experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats, a research associate at the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts, and designed to produce a single image with an exposure time of 1,000 years.
As part of his Deep Time Photography project, Keats aims to photographically document the next thousand years of environmental change in the Sonoran Desert and beyond. To that end, Keats designed the Millennium Camera based on traditional pinhole technology, only his focuses light onto colored pigment, fading the color where the light is brightest, slowly imprinting a unique positive image. The thousand-year-long exposure will show not only the view in front of the camera but also the dynamic shift of urban development (or its crumble) and climate change.
Partnering with the University of Arizona Desert Laboratory, Keats plans to deploy several millennium cameras on Tumamoc Hill between 2023 and 3023 and will be positioned to provide an expansive view of Tucson, allowing multiple opportunities for the public to become part of the photographs future cultures will view generations from now. Additional cameras have already been installed at Arizona State University (overlooking the rapidly expanding city of Tempe), at Amherst College (overlooking the forested Holyoke Range), and on Lake Tahoe (overlooking the Sand Harbor State Park).
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