Category: Ecstasis

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” →

by jad

Seattle’s Nuclear History: UW

Did you know that UW had a nuclear reactor? It’s not there anymore; in fact, the whole nuclear engineering program was shut down in 1992, a few years after the reactor itself was decommissioned. People fought to keep the brutalist building (renamed in the interim as More Hall Annex) that housed it, but after several rounds of litigation, UW was finally allowed to demolish it in 2016. They built the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering in its place. Architecture fans pushed hard for incorporating elements of the original structure in the new building, but the … Continue reading “Seattle’s Nuclear History: UW” →

by jad

Doing the Puyallup (Again)

Given the good number of story posts I’ve seen, a bunch of you were at the #StateFair yesterday like us. This is probably my fourth or fifth time at the Puyallup fair, so it pretty much qualifies as a family tradition now. Christine was reflecting on how stepping onto the fair grounds is like stepping into childhood for so many, as very little changes every year. I like it. It’s goofy and fun and I’ll come again. One thing we did this year that was new for me was to watch a hypnotism show. When the hypnotist asked who here … Continue reading “Doing the Puyallup (Again)” →

by jad

Christine’s Project: Tacoma Rose Garden

Behind the scenes (and rose bushes) shot of Sabrina talking to Christine about Saint Rose of Lima, as part of our ongoing photo-documentation project. See also. I think I caught this decisive moment mid-TikTok. It was a lot of fun being back at the same spot I got my nerve up to try “street” photography for the first time last summer, using up a whole roll of film walking around Tacoma taking candid shots with my heart thumping in my throat. I was nervous about wasting film and pissing people off, but now, both considerations are a lot less intimidating, … Continue reading “Christine’s Project: Tacoma Rose Garden” →

by jad

Nuclear Culture & Photography

“The first bomb, set to go off at a height of some five hundred metres, produced a nuclear flash which lasted one fifteenth-millionth of a second, and whose brightness penetrated every building down to the cellars. It left its imprint on stone walls, changing their apparent colour through the fusion of certain minerals, although protected surfaces remained curiously un-altered. The same was the case with clothing and bodies, where kimono patterns were tattooed on the victims’ flesh. If photography, according to its inventor Nicéphore Niepce, was simply a method of engraving with light, where bodies inscribed their traces by virtue … Continue reading “Nuclear Culture & Photography” →

by jad

“Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture

I’ve been interested in the history of the atom bomb and nuclear technology ever since I read about Hanford in a book on the Columbia River called “The Organic Machine” almost two years ago. This book inspired me to visit the region last summer for my first serious foray into film photography, and soon after, I would fortuitously meet a photographer at the PCNW fair who had published a whole book on that area I had just been to. I was hooked and I kept telling myself I’d visit again. I immersed myself in the history of that godawful decision … Continue reading ““Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture” →