Projects — The Atomic Priesthood Project

Trinity Pilgrimage 02009

In the autumn of 2009, my mother and I drove from a small town in Montana to the Trinity Nuclear Test Site located within White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The site of the first successful atomic fission detonation, the United States Army opens access to the location only two times a year.

Dressed as Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the charismatic leader of The Manhattan Project, we were searching for trinitite & to pay homage to this potent geography.

Trinity Pilgrimage is a project that laid down the conceptual framework for The Atomic Priesthood Project (APHP), tying Oppenheimer's personal narrative to the culture, materials, hopes, and fears of the contemporary Atomic Age.

Trinity Pilgrimage: Wilderness Emerge

02009

Polaroid transfer print on watercolor paper, trinitite.

Trinity Pilgrimage: Obelisk

02009

Polaroid transfer on watercolor paper, trinitite

Trinity Pilgrimage: Oppie Visit

02009

Polaroid transfer on watercolor paper, trinitite

Trinitite Archive 02009-present

Rolling archive of trinitite samples.

"On 16 July 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated at the Alamogordo Bombing range in New Mexico, USA. Swept up into the nuclear cloud was the surrounding desert sand, which melted to form a green glassy material called ‘trinitite’. Contained within the glass are melted bits of the first atomic bomb and the support structures and various radionuclides formed during the detonation. The glass itself is marvelously complex at the tens to hundreds of micrometre scale, and besides glasses of varying composition also contains unmelted quartz grains. Air transport of the melted material led to the formation of spheres and dumbbell shaped glass particles. Similar glasses are formed during all ground level nuclear detonations and contain forensic information that can be used to identify the atomic device."

Material Culture 02009-present

Trinitite Reliquary Series 02010-present

Trinitite Reliquary Series is a means of illuminating the complex history, physical eccentricity, and phenomena of glass and glassmaking. Trinitite is encased within the "pure" soda/lime glass familiar to offhand glassworkers across the globe.

The reliquaries do not occupy a fixed position, but many.

High radioactive waste is trapped within a matrix of glass before it is interred within a geologic repository. The Trinitite Reliquary Series is a re-enactment of the materials that actors within the APHP serve as wards.

Trinitite Reliquary Series

02010-present

Glass, trinitite

dimensions variable

APHP Mask 02010

Silver is a potent material within the APHP, as its color changes over the passage of time, provides excellent conductivity, is a lunar conduit, and is anti-microbial.

Actors within the APHP are encouraged to obfuscate identifying characteristics of their bodies such as gender, face, and voice. APHP Mask is a symbolically powerful gesture towards the anonymity and material reverence valued within the APHP.

APHP Altars 02010-present

APHP Altar, St. Oppenheimer

02014

Glass, paper, candles, Polaroid transfer on watercolor paper, wax, candles, mixed media

APHP Altar 002

02015

Bluestone, stainless steel, candle

APHP Altar 001

02010

Alabaster, candle

APHP Altar 000

02014

Candles, mixed media

Initiate Inscription Rite 02011-present

An actor within the APHP must undergo the process of the Initiate Inscription Rite before they can be considered a fully transformed member of The Priesthood. The rite involves the modification of the actor's body in a highly visible, permanent fashion that incorporates visual information relevant to the APHP's mission of embracing and expanding the culture of radioactive materials, death, rebirth, and entropy.

APHP Scratcher

02009

Brass, stainless steel, wood.

Inscription Side A: bmw01984

By Dana Sherwood

02010

Ink and graphite on paper

Inscription Side B: bmw01984

by Dana Sherwood

02010

Ink and graphite on paper

Inscription Rite: bmw01984

Formal application of Inscription Side B on initiate bmw01984.

Inscription Rite: bmw01984

Formal application of Inscription Side A on initiate bmw01984.

Inscription Shroud: bmw01984

02010

Ink, blood, transfer pigment, embroidered silk.

Ritualspace 02012-present

Ritualspace is a site designed, installed, and consecrated by an actor within the APHP in anticipation of an audience. Rituals are enacted within these spaces and may be seen as an opportunity to enroll those unfamiliar with the APHP into its elusive mythology.

The architecture of Ritualspace is not fixed, but must destabilize the audience by fragmenting or reframing the natural within the designed.

Ritualspace

02012

Mixed media

APHP Chair

02012

Foam, latex paint, mixed media

Geologic Present Ritual

02012

Performance

Individual attendants were invited into Ritualspace, to take communion from an APHP representative, and leave with a sacrament.

APHP Full Moon Ritual

02013

Performance

Hosted by the Otis College of Art & Design, participants received a sermon of thanks to lunar fullness, Stanley Kubrick, and the Apollo astronauts of antiquity by an APHP Priest.

As the sun went down, participants were guided by the APHP Priest to a satellite location.

APHP Full Moon Ritual

02013

APHP Full Moon Ritual

02013

Vestments (for Ten Millennia) 02013

In collaboration with Claire Beaumont and The Mildred Complex(ity), Vestments (for Ten Millennia) represent the symbolic garb of The Atomic Priesthood Project (APHP).

Silver, Lead, Silk, Wool, Linen, Nylon

This uniform/vestment’s fabric contains an external twill woven membrane of silvered Linsey-Woolsey, a fiber construction dating back to pre Revolutionary War, and an important fabric in Colonial America signifying resistance and independence.

The linings and shirting are constructed of highly sensitive, conductive, silvered yarns to produce a complete profile that is capable of being instantaneously transmittable to a central data bank. The entire garment has bio-sensing technologies and infrastructures forming a triboelectrically charged symbiotic entity, with abrasion-resistant protection against ultra-violet radiation, acid rain, and a wide range of environmental toxins.

The inner vestment is lead and silver lined with Xstatic fibers that are silver vaporized nylons that are anti-microbial, anti-odor, stain resistant, and provides protection from radiation exposure. These advanced antimicrobial technologies are designed to manage all forms of bacterial contamination; creating an ionic shield that permanently inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungi.

"Preparatory Sketch for Atomic Priesthood Suit"

02012, Graphite on paper, Linsey-Woolsey textile, silver deposited silk, mixed media.

Final Atomic Vestments Sketch #2 maller copy.JPG

Hi-Rad Mummy 02012-present

A central component to the APHP mythology is the belief that the organismic body can transmute into a geologic body with a minimum loss of information. Hi-Rad Mummy is an icon of such a transformation, a carbon body transformed into a silicate through complex rites of vitromancy and mineral communion.

These altered bodies are commonly referred to as Arrows within the APHP.

The Hi-Rad Mummy

02012

Watercolor and ink on paper

Hi-Rad Mummy, Jaw

2010

Glass

Hi-Rad Mummy Model

02010

Resin, wood

Sculptures 02009-present

Oppenheimer's Ghost

02012

Pate-de-verre cast uranium glass, ultraviolet LED, mixed media

APHP Pando-Box

02014

Watercolor on paper, mixed media

Time Arrow (brother bmw01984) 02013

Deep-Time Body (brother bmw01984) illustrates the body of an actor within the APHP, subject to a series of preparation rites in order for that body to operate as a vessel through timespace.

The body is mummified, its face stripped away, gilded in gold leaf, its mouth forever containing the reflective black orb of glass upon death.

If the actor's vestments are not passed down to a successor, the vestments are draped on the body until they are claimed by an initiate into the APHP after all necessary rites of passage are complete.

Bodies prepared are labeled according to the actor's initials and date of birth.

D-Blankets 02015

Black Sun Rose (WIPP) 02017-present

Part 01- The Project

The most ambitious project undertaken by the Atomic Priesthood Project, Black Sun Rose, is an attempt to outline the material and design protocols for the sites of nuclear waste repositories.

Using the The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) as a test model, Black Sun Rose is a wide-ranging design proposal using the culture of the Atomic Priesthood Project and the SANDIA Expert Judgement on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant report as guides.

Black Sun Rose provides solutions to the many problems of marking and communicating on the scale of 10,000+ years.

Part 2- The Idea

Any marker of deep-time, nuclear repositories must stand the test of time. The additional challenge is to discourage exploration, excavation, and easy dismantling.

A pyramidal structure composed of many thousands of interlocking, Penrose-style blocks satisfied many of the problems of scale and feasibility. All structures within Black Sun Rose would follow the same Penrose patterning, establishing deliberate, human design and a visual, genetic relationship between them.

All Penrose tiles would be cast out of black concrete. Concrete being the most readily available deep-time material for the physical scale necessary. Coloring the concrete black will allow the structure to absorb solar radiation from the desert sun, preventing humans, animals, or plants from making it a viable habitat.

Black Sun Rose must be no smaller than approx. 4 miles squared. This allows for total coverage of the buried WiPP site and will make the structure visible from space as a man-made blemish upon the Earth.

Part 3-Glass

Glass is the most geologically stable, chemically inert substance made by humans that can be produced and manipulated at a large scale.

The unique qualities of glass allow for messages to be embedded with or within it to bridge the unfathomable gulfs of time necessary.

Glass must be used as the primary carrier of any linguistic or symbolic message to future generations of humans regarding nuclear waste.

Part 4a-Communication (How)

In collaboration with Helen Lee. The process of stacking rods of colored glass together and fusing them into a legible, three dimensional font was chosen as the means by which glass could be used as the material to communicate the information of the WiPP site on geologic timescales.

Part 4b-Communication (Why)

In addition to it’s ability to remain unchanged over ten of thousands of years, glass is able to be formed into any shape and exhibits physical properties uniquely suited as a communication material within Black Sun Rose.

Glass is able to collect and transmit light. Using the same principles as fiber optical cabling, the font of Black Sun Rose signage is able to become illuminated if formed in the proper way. In this way, any message constructed with this font can become illuminated in darkened spaces due to its own material properties.

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Part 4c- Communication (Problems)

Following the logic of the Lee Font, thick panels of glass can be made to embed any linguistic or symbolic message necessary to communicate about the WiPP site and its attendant culture, the Atomic Priesthood Project.

Vandalism and erosion are mitigated by the thickness of the material and special properties of glass: the more the message is chipped away, the more of it is revealed.

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Part 5-Warning Kiosk

Black Sun Rose is designed as a series of related structures within the four square miles of territory above the WiPP site it covers.

At the outermost periphery of Black Sun Rose are kiosks spaced at frequent intervals to the site. These kiosks will contain basic information about the site and warn the curious to turn around in various languages, pictograms, and diagrams. This information will be made of thick glass tablets embedded within a concrete structure following the same Penrose patterning as the total Black Sun Rose monument.

Part 6-Deep Dolemen

The secondary level of warning against exploring the Black Sun Rose site are an array of Deep Dolmen placed within the inner perimeter of the main structure.

These Dolmen act as a redundant, expanded archive of important information regarding the Black Sun Rose. Anticipating archeologists of the future, these structures are meant have much more detailed information regarding nuclear waste, the global initiative to mark buried waste, and the Atomic Priesthood Project.

This information is embedded in the same fashion as the Warning Kiosks; within panels of glass. The glass information panels within the dolmen are designed to collect external sunlight and illuminate their message in the same way that fiber optic cables are able.

Entry to these Deep Dolmen are by displacing one key piece of Penrose pattern tiling. A difficult project, but one that anticipates future curious humans.

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Part 7- Black Sun Rose

As of 2020, the Black Sun Rose project exists only as a proposal by the Atomic Priesthood Project as a viable strategy for deep-time marking and communication.

Further details, designs, and conceptual renders for the implementation of Black Sun Rose are available upon request by contacting designentropy@gmail.com

Many thanks to Helen Lee, Cameron Klavsen, and William Everett for their generosity and creativity to bring this project alive.