Artist Jonathan Keats is distributing long-exposure pinhole cameras, to be installed throughout Berlin and developed 100 years from now.
On May 16th, Keats, along with Team Titanic, will let the public place a camera in a hidden location anywhere in the city for 10 euro (about $14). The camera will make objects which are exposed for shorter times lighter. For example, if an apartment building is torn down in ten years, it will be faint in comparison to an office building that lasts for 80. With the project, Keats would like to hold our current society accountable for the way we affect the future:
The first people to see these photos will be children who haven’t yet been conceived. They’re impacted by every decision we make, but they’re powerless. If anyone has the right to spy on us, it’s our descendants.
He isn’t bothered by the fact that everyone who is working on this project now will be dead by the time it’s completed. The long-exposure photos are meant more as a way to conceptualize the present than to actually see the images cameras end up collecting, although there is an exhibit for the photographs already scheduled for May 16th, 2114. Team Titanic is hoping to get all the cameras back in 100 years, and promises to return the 10 euro deposit at that time. (Photo via PSFK)
