Category: Ecstasis

by jad

Asteroid City

“But you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep So go live your dreams and live them real deep. There is some countin’ money and there’s some countin’ sheep. Oh, you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep – If you don’t fall asleep.” (Jarvis Cocker) I watched ‘Asteroid City’ on the ten-hour flight to Frankfurt coming here, and I don’t think I was fully awake to fully grasp it, but I think it’s a movie about grief and purpose and the stories we let ourselves to find purpose in grief, or grief in purpose, etc. “Asteroid City … Continue reading “Asteroid City” →

by jad

Saints in the Mirror

This one killed it last night, and those aren’t even my words; it’s what so many who were there at her “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit have been telling me all day. I know how hard she’s been and still is working on this project, and I couldn’t be prouder. Two of the twelve pieces from @christine.bingham.art‘s “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit at Epiphany yesterday, depicting Sor Juana and Saint Rose of Lima. You should ask Christine about her collaborative process with our cat. I was so happy to see so many of you there to support Christine! It was … Continue reading “Saints in the Mirror” →

by jad

Nuclear Vancouver

We packed a lot into our very short time in Vancouver, but my favorite stop was the opportunity to visit and hang out with atomic photographer, filmmaker, and sole @uraniumfilm festival coordinator in Canada for the 2024 tour, Jesse Andrewartha, in his East Van home. Here we are in his darkroom. And here he is displaying the radioactive properties of his prized slice of polished uranium ore. Let me tell you: that crackling of the Geiger counter is an eerie basement sound! Jesse Andrewartha is a Canadian filmmaker, photographer, and visual effects artist specializing in historical & obscure darkroom techniques … Continue reading “Nuclear Vancouver” →

by jad

Seattle’s Nuclear History: Satsop

Satsop isn’t actually abandoned, but I like how this Instagram location tag plays on the indeterminacy of this place as both modernist ruin and post-modern investment opportunity. 20 minutes to Aberdeen, 1 hour 30 minutes to Seattle, 1 hour to the Olympic National Forest, 30 minutes to Olympia, 3 hours to Portland – that’s how the Satsop Business Park website sells this enticing real estate. I wonder how those proxemics would read today had this plant actually gone live. x Why choose Satsop? “The Park offers facilities from 5,000 sq. ft to 300,000 sq. ft. In addition, more than 400 … Continue reading “Seattle’s Nuclear History: Satsop” →

by jad

Nuclear History is in the Present Tense

In “By the Bomb’s Early Light,” Paul Boyer writes about the ebbs and flows of nuclear criticism as atomic dreams and radioactive nightmares danced across this nation’s psyche throughout the Cold War. He wrote his book during such a peak and prefaced his second edition with a question about the next peak to come, as the Cold War had been called off by then. In the intervening years, there have been blips of renewed interest, especially around the time of the radioactive catastrophe at Fukushima, but with rising geopolitical tensions and increased climate emergency, it seems like we’re re-entering another … Continue reading “Nuclear History is in the Present Tense” →

by jad

Christine at Side Rail Collective

So very proud of @christine.bingham.art for this piece that wowed everyone and generated so much conversation this weekend at @siderailcollective. Not only is it fascinating to look at, with its layer of resin and glass and scrap metal semi-obscuring a highly detailed underwater seascape — trust me, no photo can do this effect justice — but it also tells a complex story of growing up out here in Seattle. You should come talk to Christine about it at the Halloween party on the 28th. I’ll be there too and might take a photo of the back of your head. See … Continue reading “Christine at Side Rail Collective” →

by jad

Media Zap

In the 90s, it was trendy in media studies to think very deeply about the phenomenology of “zapping” between channels. You might recall that this was the era when the last of the single-station nations gave way to satellite television. Some predicted “a state of confusion and cultural shock” as the public lost its metronome. Others saw it “as characteristically postmodern in breaking up linearity, or subversively anti-capitalist.” I remember reading these texts about a decade later and finding them hilarious; how could what we did with our remotes have caused so much alarm? And yet, that’s the image I … Continue reading “Media Zap” →

by jad

Media & the Opiate of Despair

It’s about that time in the news cycle when the amphetamine of outrage begins to fade into the opiate of despair. And I say “news cycle” not to diminish events, but to relay them more accurately; because that is where you and I and virtually everyone who may ever stumble on these words resides: in the cycle of news consumption, a position we sometimes forget in our proverbial cave of projections, believing ourselves to be in the actual thick of things. We are in something, that’s for sure, just not in that. I’m thinking about Günther Anders, the Jewish philosopher … Continue reading “Media & the Opiate of Despair” →

by jad

RICHLAND

Last night, I watched the breathtakingly beautiful RICHLAND, a documentary by @komsomol.films on the history and people of Richland, WA, a once secretive town that’s tangled up forever in the afterlife of the atom bomb. I knew I’d be informed but I did not expect to be moved – it’s those “nuclear feelings” that UW professor Shannon Cram brought up in the Q&A that did it. Watch it when you can. I’m currently working with @uraniumfilm to bring this film back in April, but that’s fine, watch it twice – it’s worth it. I’ll have more to say about RICHLAND … Continue reading “RICHLAND” →

by jad

Seattle’s Nuclear History: James Acord

“Art and science are parallel paths to truth and understanding.” This is a quote that a Seattle artist I just connected with shared with me. It’s something James Acord said and believed. It’s something I believe in as well. Acord’s faith in the “transmuting” power of art was relentless, giving him the stamina to pursue his life’s work for decades. This is how he became the only private individual in history with a radioactive materials handling license: WN-10407-1, a number he tattooed on the back of his neck. His pursuit cost him dearly, not unlike Will Navidson in Mark Z. … Continue reading “Seattle’s Nuclear History: James Acord” →