A new exhibit on nuclear weapons opens Wednesday at the University of New Mexico鈥檚 Zimmerman Library as part of a nationwide tour. 鈥淭he bomb鈥� is an immersive multimedia installation created by journalist and artist .
There will be a two-day symposium starting Wednesday to open the exhibit. One of the coordinators, Associate Professor Myrriah Gomez, and a panelist Nora Wendl, an associate professor of architecture, spoke to 91暗网 about the symposium and the exhibit, which Gomez said feels less like a documentary and more like an art piece.
MYRRIAH GOMEZ: It evokes a sort of emotional response, I think, from the viewer that's really asking the viewer to question the way that they feel about nuclear weapons and nuclear testing. In particular, everything from the images that are used to the soundtrack really convey the sort of story about nuclear testing and nuclear weapons that I think creates a new sort of framework for us to have a conversation that's not so polarized. I think bringing this particular film and the exhibition to the university creates a way for university students and our community at the university to sort of enter into this conversation in a way that they may not otherwise know how to do.
91暗网: What about you, Nora, what will be your role on the symposium?
NORA WENDL: So my role will be to speak to what I've taught, engaging histories of nuclear New Mexico, which has been mostly in architecture studios. It's kind of a capstone to the undergraduate experience where students learn the history of nuclear colonialism. And what's been remarkable over the years that I've taught this studio is that students always say, 鈥淚 never learned this in my New Mexico history class in high school. This is the first time I'm hearing that New Mexico was really impacted by the development of the atomic bomb. I never thought about the way New Mexico is connected to the globe in such a sort of precarious and dangerous way.鈥� So the panel will be a chance to talk about that class, and it'll be a chance to talk about the research that I've done, which has been on writing a sort of public scholarship approach to telling the story of nuclear New Mexico and in particular the downwinders history.
91暗网: Mariah, talk about other parts of the symposium on Wednesday and Thursday.
GOMEZ: The symposium has kind of been co-coordinated by three of us myself, Mel Ribas, who's in University Libraries, the actual installation will be there at Zimmerman Library in the commons room from April 30 through May 30. The other person is Sachi Barnaby, who is an undergraduate student here at UNM and Sachi has been co-teaching, or student teaching, Atomic Bomb Culture with me this semester in the Honors College. We wanted to focus on the students and the faculty and sort of the artists to engage in this artistic conversation who are engaged in these topics. The event will actually start with a tabling event in the morning in Smith Plaza, where we've invited about 20 organizations who are engaged in these topics. The Big Event to kick it off will be the keynote lecture, which will be delivered by Alicia Inez Guzm谩n. The title of her keynote will be Epifana story, a local reporter's quest to reveal a 50 year old secret, talking about what we call , the woman who was detected with so much plutonium in her body. Nora鈥檚 students will also be doing a gallery walk,
WENDL: Yeah so the students have been working all semester on artifacts and a proposal for a museum to protest, essentially, which would be a designed museum and community center that would be near where the Tularosa basin down wonders actually do their protests during the open house.
91暗网: Down by the ?
WENDL: Yeah, exactly. So the students are really interested in that, in the way that the Trinity Site is not really in any way actively interpreting the events that happened. So in their project, they're creating, how do you tell that story? How do you tell the story of the protests that have taken place and the seeking out of reparations? How do you acknowledge the downwinders? How do you give them community space, both for activism but also for events?
GOMEZ: And then we'll have the big screening of 鈥渢he bomb鈥� at 5:30 that evening, and that'll be in George Pearl Hall with the reception sponsored by the School of Architecture. And then that'll be followed by a post-screening panel with the two artists, Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser, joined by Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. And that's just day one. You know. Day two starts off with a graduate student panel featuring work by students from across campus, four really different disciplines that they're coming from. And then that'll be followed by my Atomic Bomb Culture class鈥� final project presentations at 12:30 and then it'll end with a panel at 4 p.m. featuring work by local artists. You know as nuclear issues often bring in -- they can be heated debates and heated discussions, and we're welcoming all sorts of interaction regarding this exhibit. There will also be a response wall outside of the exhibition in Zimmerman that will be up for the month, where people can leave their responses to the film and to the exhibition. You know, I think there's a lot of us looking for ways to bridge art and sort of more specific genres or disciplines, I should say, of academia, because the art is what's reaching the communities, the art is what's reaching the public. And I think that we need to keep that in mind as we talk about all of these issues.
takes place Wednesday and Thursday at Zimmerman Library and George Pearl Hall. will be at Zimmerman Library through May 30.
