It is a completely unusual tool that has just been built in the USA: a camera designed to capture a single image of the landscape of Tucson, Arizona, over a period of a thousand years.
The device, called the Millennium Camera, was developed by Jonathon Keats, an experimental philosopher at the University of Arizona, with a very specific goal: to stimulate reflection on the evolution of landscapes, the environment and our influence on them. Ultimately, it's about a reflection on the future of humanity and what our world could look like at the beginning of the 31st century.
Ghostly image
If the project is ambitious, its implementation is equally ambitious. To build this unique device, Jonathon had to use durable materials that would stand the test of time. Once completed, the object was placed high up near a hiking trail on Tumamoc Hill overlooking Tucson.
What could the image represent? Its creator has a little idea. Once the image is complete, sharper parts that have remained static and more ghostly parts that have evolved and moved over time become visible. A unique recording that perhaps only very (very) distant generations can discover.
Maybe because one cannot say with certainty that the image will ever exist. From a technical point of view, the device has never been used and no comparable object exists. Several factors could therefore disrupt its functioning and prevent its realization. Then the area in which the camera is located must not change drastically. An earthquake, a climate catastrophe or another brutal intervention from outside – including humans – could put an end to this somewhat crazy project.