I don’t usually write on topics that have a political bent, there are plenty of other people to do that, but I was checking out some of my blogroll favourites today and came across an entry by Moon River. Moon posts beautiful entries that include visual things I love – evocative images, ancient maps etc. The one that caught my eye today though was one featuring the work of Michael Light. This book and exhibition, 100 SUNS features images of some (yes, only some) of America’s nuclear tests between 1945 and 1992. Text describing this book and exhibition:
Between 1945 and 1992 the United States detonated 1,149 nuclear test explosions. Until 1962 the tests were conducted in the atmosphere and oceans. 106 of the 216 above ground blasts were exploded 63 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada. The remaining were detonated at the Enewetak or Bikini Atolls in the Pacific Ocean. The immediate and lasting consequences of these tests were unforeseen.
Michael Light's installation, 100 SUNS, was first presented at the Hosfelt Gallery in 2003 and is currently traveling. At the heart of this exhibition are 100 photographs culled by Michael Light from the U.S. National Archives and the records of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The re-photo-graphed images depict above-ground tests at or shortly after the moment of explosion. Utilizing the found photographs along with text and photographic imagery shot by Light, the installation raises palpable issues about "weapons of mass destruction" in the hands of any nation.
The title, 100 SUNS, refers to the response by J. Robert Oppenheimer to the world's first nuclear explosion in New Mexico when he quoted a passage from the Bhagavad Gita, the classic Vedic text, "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of the Mighty One... I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." This was Oppenheimer's attempt to describe the otherwise indescribable.
These often terrifyingly beautiful images illustrate with absolute clarity why nuclear weapons need to be proscribed. It also showcases the hypocrisy of the members of the ‘nuclear club’ when they threaten to ‘intervene’ when other nations get close to doing something similar, even though they themselves have wreaked untold damage on the environment and the human psyche by carrying out their testing over decades. It becomes hypocritical when they try to adopt the white hat when pontificating. They be should be honest and don the black before they speak. Fess up. You understand that dark place because you’ve embraced it yourself.
Hi Moon
Well, there's no single answer to that. Really a bunch of influences and experiences that underpin that love. When I was a boy my grandfather was a subscriber to National Geographic Magazine. I remember pouring over those wonderful maps for hours. I always have loved history and of course the maps that go with it. I have always been a keen reader of SF and fantasy fiction and the expressions of those magical worlds through their maps. When books didn't have maps I drew them myself. Later I designed adventure games for computers and always started by mapping the world. I've posted a few times on maps and map related things.You've seen some of them but maybe not some of the older ones. http://erraticmusings.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/maps_of_the_hea.html
http://erraticmusings.typepad.com/blog/2005/05/cartographers_o.html
http://erraticmusings.typepad.com/blog/2005/06/from_limbo.html
http://erraticmusings.typepad.com/blog/2005/07/outside_the_squ.html
Cheers
Paul
Posted by: Paul | March 13, 2007 at 10:59 PM
Helo Paul,
i've been reading the "about me" section, and there you say that you have special interest in maps and mapmaking....ammm...can you elaborate on that?
10x
moon
Posted by: moon | March 13, 2007 at 10:34 PM