The “IMG_0001” website features a frame with an old TV static effect and a floating retro Panasonic remote that you can click to start watching random YouTube videos from over a decade ago that were recorded and uploaded from devices such as 2010’s iPhone 4.
Riley Walz, a tech worker who helped stage a fake steakhouse restaurant in Manhattan last year, built the site. He credits this blog by Ben Wallace for the idea and says the iPhone is the reason the project is possible.
As described on the site, there was a novel (at the time) “Send to YouTube” feature on iPhones between 2009 and 2012 that let you upload recordings directly from your iPhone for anyone to see — which often aren’t accompanied by any text descriptions.
Each video is titled something like IMG_XXXX, which follows the default naming conventions of recordings from iPhones (and many, many cameras).
As you’re presented with videos such as this random white cat that jumps at the cameraman, some Wu-Tang Clan concertgoer, or the homies jumping into a swimming pool, the site shows you the upload date and the number of views. View counts are under ten most of the time. If you click on the numbers, it takes you to the original YouTube page for the video so you can comment or just take a moment to appreciate how immortalizing YouTube makes the world.
If this site is ringing a bell, you’re probably thinking about a similar project called Astronaut from 2017. It had a similar idea to IMG_0001 where you watch original filename videos; however, Astronaut focused on videos that could be newly uploaded (with low view counts) and only showed small portions of each one unless you intervened.
