A New Perspective on the Nuclear Debate: An Animation by Isao Hashimoto
Isao Hashimoto undertook an art project to depict the spread and testing of nuclear weapons in their history. The ten minute clip begins slowly, in 1945 charting every nuclear explosion on Earth, from the first test and infamous Hiroshima tragedy, up until India and Pakistan began testing in 1998. The explosions are assigned colors and sounds which, after about 3 minutes of relative inaction, increase in frequency and form a musical and visual exploration. The means of representation that Hashimoto uses is effective in its capacity to distance the viewer from the reality. We watch the world map like gods from above under some induced hypnosis as more and more countries enter the game. It is only in lapses that the harrowing truth of what we are seeing enters our consciousness.
It is a fascinating and unique portal into the nuclear debate. The artist writes:
“This piece of work is a bird’s eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second. No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier. The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted. I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world.”
As Iran speeds ahead with it’s plans to develop nuclear capabilities in spite of the Non-Proliferation-Treaty (they recently conducted a recent Sheab-3 rocket launch test), and attempts by most major nations to thwart them are futile, the video takes on a startlingly relevant aspect. Intelligence (according to ‘Times’ reporter Catherine Philip who writes from Washington), suggests Iran is five years away from a missile that could reach Western Europe and the US. On a side note, I say “intelligence” and visualize that brilliant puppet-driven romp, “Team America” from the Southpark team: “We have no Intelligence, I repeat we have lost all Intelligence”. So while acknowledging my own personal fears, I am keen not to ignore the lessons of that satire, either and will quickly move beyond discussion of this political turmoil until I am better informed.
And beyond those mental images, seared into our brains, of what nuclear weapons can do to cities, to briefly expatiate on those factors that we take less notice of. What happens long long after the mushroom cloud has faded into memory. Things like the effects that a nuclear blast can have on ecosystems that are, or are near to, the sites of nuclear tests. Effects which are in many ways beyond our comprehension, merely because the time-ranges implied are comparatively staggering in relation to human history:
For instance, we just learned a short while ago that a very important water source for a desert oasis providing sustenance to many unique species in Nevada begins at a nuclear test site — which means the pollution in that water (which takes a long time to travel underground to the oasis) will eventually hit the already troubled ecosystem in perhaps 15,000 years. That’s a long legacy for a few nuclear bomb detonations.
In the last minute of Hashimoto’s piece, white remnant blotches that reflect the amalgamations of real-obliteration retrace the damage and compound the experience, before fading away. We are left feeling hollow. But also a little amazed at ourselves… that after 2053 nuclear explosions in half a century, we didn’t take it that much further. In that at least, there is a reason to be optimistic!
