{"id":9,"date":"2023-09-22T06:25:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T06:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2025-09-27T00:21:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T00:21:03","slug":"atomic-terrain","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/","title":{"rendered":"Atomic Terrain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An in-depth exploration of the nuclear age, and how the development of the atom bomb transformed humanity\u2019s relationship with the natural world. <\/span><\/h2>\n
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We often think about nuclear weapons as a future security threat: bombs that could<\/i> be detonated now or later, altering the fate of our world.<\/h4>\n

Yet nuclear weapons have already seeped into our waters and tapped into our soils. Since its invention, it has and continues to harm all of life \u2014 humans and non-humans alike.<\/h4>\n

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From the literal claiming of land as territory to resource extraction that fuel weapons production, human impact on the natural world in the name of national security carries a tension between cultivation and control, peace and conflict. This tension undergirds the atomic age: the creation of the atom bomb, in an effort to dissuade future wars through deterrence, has left global environmental scars in its wake, from uranium mining to nuclear testing. <\/span><\/p>\n

While nuclear security and environmental justice are intimately entangled, there is a troubling disconnect between the two fields. Nuclear policy, particularly the branch of study dedicated to the nonproliferation, control, and eventual disarmament of nuclear weapons, rarely cross-pollinate with the environmental social sciences. A sincere attempt to make sense of these complex entanglements \u2014 of bombs, science, ecologies \u2014 requires an expansive set of expertise that does not neatly fit the current construct of nuclear policy. What kinds of insights could emerge if nuclear security and environmental disciplines exchanged knowledge? What would happen if non-human life forms are part of our peace & security frameworks, rather than just national interests?<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Through artistic interventions (bookmaking and gardening) and multidisciplinary research (the convergence of nuclear policy, anthropology and ecology) Atomic Terrain explores the ways in which <\/span>nature<\/b> \u2014 the humble existence of plant life around us \u2014 as an alternative access point to our nuclear past, and encourages us to reckon with the ways this history reverberates in today\u2019s geopolitics and cultural landscape.<\/span>
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Atomic Terrain was a featured exhibition at the 2024 Printed Matter New York Art Book Fair, showcasing\u00a0How To Make A Bomb<\/em> with Gabriella Hirst, Warren Harper, Tammy Nguyen & Lovely Umayam.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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COLLABORATION:<\/span><\/p>\n

B(L)OOM<\/em> Art Book<\/a><\/h2>\n

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\nAn art book written by Lovely Umayam and made by Tammy Nguyen, that retells nuclear weapons history from the perspective of plants and communities that have persevered through nuclear threat and destruction. <\/span><\/p>\n

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It is also an invitation for anyone to share their stories about how plants and landscapes have helped them contemplate destruction, resilience, and survival.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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COLLABORATION:<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Make a Bomb<\/a><\/h2>\n

A collaborative art-and-gardening workshop by Gabriella Hirst and Warren Harper examining the connections between horticulture, state power, and nuclear colonialism. How to Make a Bomb made its U.S. debut in the summer of 2023 in New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles.<\/span> <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Convergence and Collaboration<\/h3>\n

During a series of virtual and in-person meetings in the summer of 2023, we asked nuclear policy scholars, environmentalists, and anthropologists, how can we create scholarship frameworks and systems of support to better connect nuclear policy and environmentalism?<\/b> Together, we will present <\/span>multi-scalar <\/span><\/i>research \u2013 examining nuclear weapons from non-traditional frameworks of TIME, SPACE, and KNOWLEDGE - and demonstrate how to leverage knowledge from different fields to expand how we think about nuclear threat beyond the anthropocentric point of view.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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ATOMIC TERRAIN COLLABORATORS<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Aditi Verma<\/h3>\n

University of Michigan<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Aditi Verma <\/span><\/a>(she\/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan. Aditi is broadly interested in how energy technologies and their institutional infrastructures can be designed in more creative, participatory, and equitable ways. Read more<\/span>

<\/span>To this end, her research group at the University of Michigan works towards developing a more fundamental understanding of the early stages of the design process to improve design practice and pedagogy, and also improve the tools with which designers of complex sociotechnical systems work. Aditi holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Nuclear Science and Engineering from MIT. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Eleana Kim<\/h3>\n

University of California, Irvine<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Professor Eleana Kim<\/span><\/a> is a cultural anthropologist whose research and writing are organized around core anthropological concerns with nature and culture and the biological and the social in the production of personhood and social value. Read more<\/span>

Her research seeks out the particular ways in which conceptions of the nation, personhood, politics, and human\/non-human relations are performatively and discursively made and remade through cases that confound everyday assumptions about what is \u201cnatural\u201d or \u201ccultural.\u201d<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Jackie Waight<\/h3>\n

Bombshelltoe<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Jackie Waight<\/span> is a lifelong learner, creative, and racial\/social justice advocate based in the community of Los Angeles, CA. More than just a child of Miss Saigon and Chris, their \u201cYellow Peril\u201d blood flows to further the fight of their Vietnamese ancestors to disrupt imperialism and seek liberation for all. Read more<\/span>

Through creativity and an intersectional lens, they strive to educate and empower themselves as well as others to fight for a better world for everyone, together. Jackie dives headfirst into multiple disciplines to diversify their perspective, further their reach to combat imperialism, and expand connections across different sectors and people. Unorthodox but well-rounded, they have a music background; worked with teaching artists, youth, and nonprofits; have written poetry and articles; hosted\/spoke on panels; co-chaired WCAPS\u2019 Human Rights Working Group; and underwent an anti-nuclear fellowship with Beyond the Bomb, all to serve their aspirations of building community and bringing radical change.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n



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Jessica Lambert<\/h3>\n

Princeton University<\/em><\/p>\n

Jessica Lambert<\/span><\/a> is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation and a first-generation descendant of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. She is a Princeton graduate with a degree in Anthropology (Law, Politics, and Economics Track) and certificates in Environmental Science & Engineering and Technology & Society (Energy Track). Read more<\/span>

Her academic work at Princeton focused on environmental contamination in Indian Country and its impacts on public and environmental health, Tribal policy, and relationships with the land. Jessica serves as a Research Associate for <\/span>Nuclear Princeton<\/span><\/a>, investigating nuclear legacies across Indian Country and contributing to many of Nuclear Princeton's research and education projects.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Lovely Umayam<\/h3>\n

Bombshelltoe<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Lovely Umayam<\/span><\/a> is a writer and a nuclear nonproliferation researcher. She is the founder of the Bombshelltoe Policy and Arts Collective, a creative organization pushing for an active exploration of arts, culture and history to promote nuclear nonproliferation, arms control and disarmament. Read more<\/span>

Bombshelltoe is the first-prize recipient of the US Department of State\u2019s Innovation in Arms Control Challenge in 2013. Since then, Bombshelltoe, in collaboration with scientists, artists, historians and other experts developed a wide range of multimedia works featured in official spaces such as the United Nations and other diplomatic fora, as well as more public platforms including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Einstein Forum, AWWWARDS Design, and others.\u00a0 Her creative and policy work have appeared in various platforms, including The New York Times, Associated Press Newswire, SxSW, Wired, Pioneer Works, Catapult Magazine, among others.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Molly Hurley<\/h3>\n

Bombshelltoe<\/em><\/p>\n

Molly Hurley has a Master of Fine Arts in Community Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Rice University. From previous work with organizations such as Beyond the Bomb, The Prospect Hill Foundation, Women Cross DMZ, Daisy Alliance, and Reverse the Trend, she has garnered experiences in advocacy, philanthropy, social media and website development, and research. Read more<\/span>

She co-runs a monthly column for Inkstick Media that analyzes pop culture phenomena and their ties to national security. She\u2019s also published multiple times in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.<\/p>\n

In her artmaking practice, she most often comes back to explorations of connection: connections between humans, animals, and nature; connections both long-lasting and fleeting. As a community artist, she believes it is the connections between the individual and the community that, in union, form the basis of both individual and community identities.<\/div><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Tammy Nguyen<\/h3>\n

Passenger Pigeon Press<\/em><\/p>\n

Tammy Nguyen<\/span><\/a> is a multimedia artist whose work spans painting, drawing, printmaking and book making. Intersecting geopolitical realities with fiction, her practice addresses lesser-known histories through a blend of myth and visual narrative. Read more<\/span>

She is the founder of Passenger Pigeon Press, an independent press that joins the work of scientists, journalists, creative writers, and artists to create politically nuanced and cross-disciplinary projects. Born in San Francisco, Nguyen received a BFA from Cooper Union in 2007. The year following, she received a Fulbright scholarship to study lacquer painting in Vietnam, where she remained and worked with a ceramics company for three years thereafter. Nguyen received an MFA from Yale in 2013 and was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship at Wave Hill in 2014 and a NYFA Fellowship in painting in 2021. She was included in Greater New York 2021 at MOMA PS1 and has also exhibited Smack Mellon, Rubin Museum, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Vietnam, and the Bronx Museum, among others. Her work is included in the collections of Yale University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, MIT Library, the Seattle Art Museum, the Walker Art Center Library, and the Museum of Modern Art Library, among others. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University and represented by Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, London. <\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Warren Harper<\/h3>\n

How to Make a Bomb<\/em><\/p>\n

Warren Harper<\/span> is a curator and researcher currently based in Toronto, Canada. He was director then co-director at The Old Waterworks (TOW), an artist-led charity in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK, that provides studios, facilities, and research and development opportunities for artists. Read more<\/span>

Warren is also a board member of The Other MA (TOMA) and a supporter and member of the Working Class Creatives Database, which is a platform to share and highlight the work of working class creatives. He is a PhD researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is working on a curatorial research project exploring Essex\u2019s role in Britain\u2019s nuclear story. Warren has worked with various galleries and institutions including Arts Catalyst (UK), Cement Fields (UK), Focal Point Gallery (UK), South London Gallery (UK) and Goldsmiths, University of London (UK).<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Chanese A. Fort\u00e9<\/h3>\n

Union of Concerned Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Chanese A. Fort\u00e9<\/span><\/a> is a scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in the Global Security Program, specializing in environmental toxicology and epidemiology. Their research focuses on the health and well-being of communities affected by nuclear weapon mining, exposure, and the threat of exposure.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Gabriella Hirst<\/h3>\n

How to Make a Bomb<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Gabriella Hirst<\/span><\/a> is an artist. She was born and grew up on Cammeraygal land (Sydney, Australia) and is currently living between Berlin and London. She works primarily with moving image, sculpture, performance, and with the garden as a site of critique and care. Read more<\/span>

Gabriella\u2019s practice explores the politics of capture. She is interested in how art and archival structures attempt to keep dynamic places, objects, people and stories in a state of stasis. Gabriella has long worked with plants and gardens as a key part of her practice, considering care for plants and the stories they carry as a negotiation of how certain histories and social connections are formed and maintained, and how the non-human, vegetal world is made legible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gabriella's recent projects have been exhibited and commissioned by the Kunsthalle Osnabr\u00fcck (DE), Focal Point Gallery (UK), The Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Australian Center for the Moving Image (AU). She is the recipient of the 2020 ACMI\/Ian Potter Moving Image Commission, is a previous Marten Bequest Scholar and a recipient of the John Crampton Fellowship. She is an associate lecturer in Media Studies with the RCA School of Architecture.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n



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Jamie Kwong<\/h3>\n

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Jamie Kwong<\/span><\/a> is a fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on public opinion of nuclear weapons issues; threats climate change poses to nuclear weapons; and multilateral regimes including the P5 Process, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Katlyn Turner<\/h3>\n

Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Katlyn Turner<\/span><\/a> is a Research Scientist within the Space Enabled research group. In that role, her primary research includes work on inclusive innovation practices, and on principles of anti-racist technology design. Dr. Turner earned her PhD in Geological Sciences from Stanford University, where she researched novel nuclear waste forms.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Matt Korda<\/h3>\n

Federation of American Scientists<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Matt Korda<\/span><\/a> is a Senior Research Fellow for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, and an associate researcher with the Nuclear Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Read more<\/span>

Korda\u2019s research and open-source discoveries about nuclear weapons have made headlines across the globe, and his work is regularly used by governments, policymakers, academics, journalists, and the broader public in order to challenge assumptions and improve accountability about nuclear arsenals and trends.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Ryo Morimoto<\/h3>\n

Princeton University<\/em><\/p>\n

Professor Ryo Morimoto<\/span><\/a> is a first-generation student and scholar from Japan. Regionally centered on Japan, Morimoto\u2019s research creates spaces, languages, and archives through which to think about nuclear things, along with other not immediately sensible contaminants, as part of what it means to live in the late industrial and post fallout era.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Teresa Montoya<\/h3>\n

University of Chicago<\/em><\/p>\n

Professor Teresa Montoya<\/span><\/a>\u2019s manuscript project tentatively titled, Permeable: Din\u00e9 Politics of Extraction and Exposure<\/em>, approaches territorial dispossession and environmental toxicity as pervasive features of contemporary Indigenous life. Read more<\/span>

Based on over 15 months of ethnographic research on the Navajo Nation, her research engages local modes of relating, both in its political and kinship imaginings, to understand the entanglements of checkerboard allotment, tribal jurisdiction, and regulatory failure among Din\u00e9 communities of present-day northern Arizona and New Mexico. She is Din\u00e9 and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atomic Terrain was a featured exhibition at the 2024 Printed Matter New York Art Book Fair, showcasing\u00a0How To Make A Bomb with Gabriella Hirst, Warren Harper, Tammy Nguyen & Lovely Umayam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":527,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bombshelltoe.com\/atomicterrain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}