I have been researching the nuclear waste industry and nuclear science for the past year, under the premise that it is the most recent iteration of alchemic traditions and practices.
Early this year, I was sponsored by Cumbria University in the UK to begin a research project examining the nuclear waste industry of the region. The ultimate goal being that I would formulate a body of work that would address this industry. One of the key overlaps between my time in Northern England and the nuclear waste reprocessing facilities was their relationship to time and the land.
The material culture within the English landscape is stunning--one can find shells from recent world wars, pottery from the early 19th century, and neolithic flint waste all within the same field. Stone henges and circles such as Castlerigg, Long Meg, and King Arthur's Round Table became fascinating intersections of history, human ingenuity, and mysticism--the function of these sites is little known.
Intertwined with this investigation is the unique condition that long-term planning for nuclear waste storage faces--how do you convey over 50,000-100,000 years that there is volatile material buried below? The oldest extant human structures are only 10,000 years old--the knowledge of these cultures and their motives based on theory and conjecture. Designers and engineers are faced with the task of creating architecture that can withstand not only the test of time physically, but operate as a sign for a future culture that may have little to no resemblance to our own.
These drawings are an attempt to illustrate how the land can gain and lose "value" by these processes of burial. Source images come from schematics of nuclear waste containers and mummified remains found in Scandinavia and England, often the result of human sacrifice.
