The Simnuke project's art show opens tomorrow in San Francisco, promising "two powerful evenings of art and activism commemorating the 60th anniversary of the atomic bomb." Rx Gallery, July 28th – Aug 25. Link to event details.
While you're at it, check out cellist Zoe Keating's website (and CDs). She performed a song called "The Legions" (QuickTime video link) during the recent Simnuke event in the Nevada desert at which 400 gallons of recycled restaurant grease exploded in 20 seconds to create a simulated nuclear mushroom cloud. The song was lovely. Zoe says, "I layer the natural sound of the cello to create rhythmically dense musical structures. Other than sampling and repetition, I do not manipulate the sound of my acoustic cello in any way."
And Boing Boing reader Rick Abruzzo, who also participated in the desert event, says, "Here are PDFs of the posters I made for Simnuke 'cheerleaders.' If anyone wants high-resolution PDFs suitable for framing, let me know [rick at thoughtpolice dot com]." One of these graphics is shown at the top of this post. Links: PDF 1, and PDF 2.
(Thanks, Camron Assadi)
Previously on Boing Boing:
Xeni headed to Simnuke
Simnuke: snapshots
Xeni on NPR — SIMNUKE: Having a Blast in the Nevada Desert
Reader comment: Darin says,
When I was in the US Army (mostly during the 80s and early 90s), they used a nuke simulator composed of 20 lbs of C4 and a 55 gallon drum of smoke oil. The resulting mushroom cloud accurately represented the size of a tactical nuclear weapon. Supposedly it had a real-world kill radius of a quarter mile. Not any fire, but a huge cloud of grey and white smoke. Very impressive to see. I was a casualty of this type of 'simnuke' at Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas and Ft. Irwin, California.
