In 2008-9 we took several field trips into worlds to come. We traveled to five sites of nuclear testing and mishap in Nevada and New Mexico,
took two public tours of the NTS (Nevada Test Site), drove to the gates of WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) outside of Carlsbad, NM, and
attended the annual October open house at Trinity, site of the world’s first nuclear detonation in the Jornada del Muerto of New Mexico.
Earth's surfaces fall off into depths at these sites. The nuclear waits patiently within the geologic.
Yet it is a work of science fiction to imagine that the geologic is a site of permanence and stasis.
That the earth will hold this for us.
In the process of our travels we passed through the wreckage of former worlds. Worlds that far precede human existence on the earth.
These worlds rise and fall within a timescale greatly out of sync with that of the human.
We saw bases of mountain ranges plumb the earth at precipitous angles, reaching to depths that we could only imagine from the surface.
We crossed fault points within great basins and traversed the stretch marks of the landscape.
We stood at the edges of playas and salt lakes once linked by vast oceanic bodies of water but now separated by hundreds
of miles of dry land. Volcanic cones and lava flows rose as mile-markers to punctuate the highway.
The only certain future is that there are endless worlds to come.
The Worlds To Come field guide is stand alone component of the Worlds To Come exhibition (November 2009).
It is intended to create extensions from site to site, from ourselves to those who were present at these sites when they became nuclear decades ago,
and from humankind’s short history to the planet’s long dynamic past and future.
Print copies of the newsprint are available for order ($2 + postage). Contact us for details or download copies below.
