�Un-monument��Cold War legacy sites and the mediation of nuclear violence���John Shiga�Professor, School of Professional Communication�Director, Media & Design Innovation PhD�Associate Dean, Graduate Education & International, The Creative School�Toronto Metropolitan University��jshiga@torontomu.ca��
Low-level radioactive waste awaiting burial in a containment facility near Port Hope, Ontario (Photo: J. Shiga)
Audible Oceans: Exploring three questions �across three research-creation projects
What conditions enabled the production and exploitation of knowledge of ocean sound during the Cold War?
How did Cold War militarism impact the representation, use and governance of ocean space and ocean sound?
How did shifting societal perceptions of ocean space in turn shape military activities in the ocean, such as acoustic surveillance and nuclear weapons testing?
1. Sonar, ocean surveillance and the weaponization of sound
2. John Lilly’s military-funded human-dolphin communication research
3. Oceanus nullius and nuclear imperialism
The project emerged from my archival research on nuclear colonialism in Canada and Japan, which looked at how nuclear infrastructures are documented, justified, and made to appear inevitable in the archival record.
I then encountered the Sandia / US Department of Energy reports (early 1990s) on nuclear waste markers and was struck by what I call the “semiotic bravura” of the military-industrial complex: the confidence that it was possible and desirable to send signs of nuclear danger 12,000 years into the future through massive sculptural installations.
“A believable series of events that led to the new situation is necessary, even if entirely fictional. This allows viewers to relate the scenario to their own world and to use it as an aid for critical reflection. This is the space of speculative culture.”
The Cicada Project
John Shiga
The Irrelevance Protocol
Olivia D'Alfonso
The Rocks That Never Stop Howling
Zishuo Li
Project: Rivayat
Shafiya Khan
Bay of Fundy Nuclear Energy Council
Jonah Milo
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For more information about Un-monument:
jshiga@torontomu.ca | mediashiga.net