Atomic Kinship: Re-Enchanting Radioactivity

Aurora Del Rio; Katri Naukkarinen

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Chapter 1 Atomic Kinship

Re-Enchanting Radioactivity

In: Disruption and Convergence

Authors:

Aurora Del Rio

Aurora Del Rio
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Katri Naukkarinen

Katri Naukkarinen
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 13–21

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004700994_002

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Abstract

The chapter “Atomic Kinship: Re-Enchanting Radioactivity” explores the possibility of contemplating an affective understanding of radioactivity through artistic research. Theories of re-enchantment are considered to seek the experience of an ‘affective awareness’ of radioactive contamination.

Departing from the abandoned idea of a cult of radioactivity, which is looked at in relation to the construction of the first repository for the storage of nuclear waste in Finland, the Atomic Kinship project aims to reimagine a deity of radioactivity, proposing a less human- and male-centric approach to the discourse of radioactive inheritance than the previous idea.

The artwork Decay Cyphers was realized as an attempt to decode hidden messages from the radioactive ashes of burned alimentary products gathered from areas affected by the Chernobyl fallout in Finland. The artwork aims at acknowledging radioactive agency through the possibility of decoding a message from radioactivity.

Through a quest for a deity of radioactivity, the chapter looks at theories of re-enchantment to consider what is excluded from a secular conception of reality when addressing modern technologies in general and radioactive inheritance in specific. Embracing both the physical and the metaphysical, the energetic and material aspects of agency, a deity thus imagined may ultimately question the distinctions between the mythic and the rational and seek to generate forms of solidarity with humans and nonhumans alike.

What if, through an affective response generated by the successful or imagined discovery of a message, the realm of the possible could be expanded to acknowledge the material agency of radioactivity as a conscious being or even a deity?

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Disruption and Convergence

Generating New Conversations through Arts Research

Series: Doing Arts Thinking: Arts Practice, Research and Education, Volume: 15

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004700994

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 09 Jul 2024

Subjects
- Education
  - Higher Education
  - Art Education

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Chapter 1 Atomic Kinship

Re-Enchanting Radioactivity

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Citation Info

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Disruption and Convergence

Generating New Conversations through Arts Research

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