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Author Topic: Camera with Longest Exposure Time  (Read 1257 times)

Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2018, 03:21:13 am »

It makes no sense to me. How can a single "exposure" demonstrate change over the course of the exposure?

Jeremy
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32BT

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2018, 04:05:11 am »

It makes no sense to me. How can a single "exposure" demonstrate change over the course of the exposure?

Jeremy

That is exactly what is so utterly brilliant about the concept. It triggers you to think about what you expect to change over the course of a millenium, and what you perhaps expect to remain the same. It thus triggers you to think about acceptable change over the long term especially with regard to human impact on the environment. That includes the recording method, which may trigger interesting philosophical questions like whether we are even able to properly understand and monitor our long term impact on the environment. But it also includes questions regarding societal changes by reserving future exhibitionspace.

Note that it is a conceptual philosophic art installation. The fact that dpreview is a technically oriented photography website concentrating on the technicalities of the recording device for obvious reasons, might result in overemphasis/tunnelvision of a single aspect of the entire installation concept.
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Dave Rosser

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2018, 04:13:35 am »

That is exactly what is so utterly brilliant about the concept. It triggers you to think about what you expect to change over the course of a millenium, and what you perhaps expect to remain the same. It thus triggers you to think about acceptable change over the long term especially with regard to human impact on the environment. That includes the recording method, which may trigger interesting philosophical questions like whether we are even able to properly understand and monitor our long term impact on the environment. But it also includes questions regarding societal changes by reserving future exhibitionspace.

Note that it is a conceptual philosophic art installation. The fact that dpreview is a technically oriented photography website concentrating on the technicalities of the recording device for obvious reasons, might result in overemphasis/tunnelvision of a single aspect of the entire installation concept.
Pardon?  But then I'm a retired professional engineer.  :-\
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John Hollenberg

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2018, 12:37:50 pm »

It makes no sense to me. How can a single "exposure" demonstrate change over the course of the exposure?

It is similar to a longish exposure of cars driving at night in the city.  We see the arc of their headlights.  I would guess that some features will fade on the exposure as they recede (compared to what they would have been if there was no change) and new features will appear as they are exposed (but will also be "ghostly" due to the limited time they are available for the "film").
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2018, 02:28:09 pm »

That is exactly what is so utterly brilliant about the concept. It triggers you to think about what you expect to change over the course of a millenium, and what you perhaps expect to remain the same. It thus triggers you to think about acceptable change over the long term especially with regard to human impact on the environment. That includes the recording method, which may trigger interesting philosophical questions like whether we are even able to properly understand and monitor our long term impact on the environment. But it also includes questions regarding societal changes by reserving future exhibition space.

I like to think, perhaps deludedly, that I'm a reasonably bright chap. I was a doctor; now I'm a lawyer; I've written software. But, just as when I attended a performance of Waiting for Godot, I have to admit defeat. I have not the faintest idea what you're talking about.

Jeremy
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32BT

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2018, 06:09:34 pm »

As photographers we all have a reasonable idea how dynamic events affect the final result of a long exposure. Ocean waves that turn to silky smooth mist around a pier, moving cars, trains, and plains leaving trails of light. It can sometimes even provide additional insights like startrails do.

Next somebody tells you he's going to take a millenium long exposure of e.g. a mountain with a small town on it. Hoping to record insights on the changes that may occur.

Suddenly we are forced to rescale our understanding from microscopic short-term to virtually impossible long-term. We are thus forced to rethink what might be changing: over the course of a thousand years do mountains remain fixed? The forest? The treeline? The town? The recording device itself? Do we still exist?

Do we still exist? To make that question extra pregnant we are claiming to have reserved exhibitionspace in 3018. That additionally triggers us to question how society might change over the course of that timespan. Does it make sense to reserve a slot at such an unreasonably long distance in the future? Is a society, our current society, even guaranteed such longevity?

It's a philosophical art installation. Its actual, practical implementation isn't as relevant as the questions it raises, although one of the questions of course is also the feasibility of any kind of millenial "measuring device".

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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2018, 03:00:33 am »

Nope, I'm doing my best, but that's not helping. Must be me.

Jeremy
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capital

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2018, 03:05:09 pm »

Over the course of 1000 years, the photograph has the potential of being shaped by our actions regarding climate change. How do we want the photograph to ultimately appear?



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Dan Wells

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2018, 02:15:08 am »

I had some fun looking at the image in the DPReview article and pondering change...

Looking at the image on the DPreview website, my guess (I'm an ecologist, and have thought about long-term change to some extent) is that, assuming that the lake in the picture is Lake Tahoe itself, it will remain relatively constant if there isn't a truly catastrophic earthquake. Lake Tahoe is extremely deep, which will keep its shorelines more stable than almost any other lake. There is a human dam, which could come and go, but it only affects the lake level by a tiny bit (the dam is 18 feet high, and the lake is over 1,600 feet deep in places).  The area is geologically active, but the lake is over 2 million years old and has survived many earthquakes.

Like the lake, the distant mountains are probably quite stable at the scale the camera is recording (it would take a hell of a rockslide to be visible at that range). I didn't turn up evidence that any of them are active volcanoes, which would be the most likely way they'd get reshaped. The trees on the near shore don't look like bristlecones or anything similarly hardy and slow-growing - they'll probably grow, die and be replaced a couple of times - whether due to fire, pest infestation, logging or climate. Lake Tahoe is actually subject to tsunamis on a frequent enough interval that one could wipe out the forest (it's sufficiently deep, wide and earthquake-prone that it can generate a 10 meter wave, and possibly more). The little clearing in the foreground is almost certainly transient - it's unlikely to survive a 100 year exposure, let alone 1,000.

 At first, I dismissed the road in the foreground as likely to disappear, but I realized that many Roman roads are twice that old. Assuming human habitation survives anywhere in the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe will continue to be attractive to people, and why move the road? Even if parts of it are lost in an earthquake or tsunami, it's likely to be rebuilt in pretty much the same place.
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Wayne Fox

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Re: Camera with Longest Exposure Time
« Reply #10 on: November 22, 2018, 02:29:33 am »

From the article ... "Whether the cameras can remain still for 1000 years, and whether the exposure will be right in 3018, remains to be seen”

I’d be surprised if they lasted even 100 years.

Sounds like a nice PR move, and it seems to have worked - he managed some press and notoriety from it.
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