i wanted to walk through the empty streets
and feel something constant under my feet
but the news reports recommended that i stay indoors



Radiation is invisible, but it’s not too difficult to build an apparatus that lets you see it. This video shows the ghostly aftermath of passing radiation in a cloud chamber, one of the first set-ups used to study radiation.




SENDING THIS MESSAGE
WAS IMPORTANT TO US
WE CONSIDERERED OURSELVES
TO BE A POWERFUL CULTURE


Spike Field
A series of extremely large spikes emerging from the ground at different angles.

Spikes Bursting Through Grid
A large square grid pattern across the site, through which large spikes protrude at various angles.

Menacing Earthworks
Large mounds of earth shaped like lightning bolts, emanating from the edges of a square site. The shapes would be strikingly visible from the air, or from artificial hills constructed around the site.


THIS PLACE IS A MESSAGE
AND PART OF A SYSTEM OF MESSAGES
PAY ATTENTION TO IT!



The Sandia report explored designs for physical markers which conveyed the concepts of dangerous emanations, shapes that evoke bodily harm, and the concept of "shunned land" that appears destroyed or poisoned. The designs suggested included:

Landscape of Thorns
A mass of many irregularly-sized spikes protruding from the ground in all directions.



because the air outside will make
our cells divide at an alarming rate



Black Hole
An enormous slab of basalt or black-dyed concrete, rendering the land uninhabitable and unfarmable.

Rubble Landscape
A large square-shaped pile of dynamited rock, which over time would still appear anomalous and give a sense of something having been destroyed.

THIS PLACE IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR
NO HIGHLY ESTEEMED DEED IS COMMEMORATED HERE
NOTHING VALUED IS HERE



and i'm looking through the glass
where the light bends at the cracks




i've got a cupboard with cans of food
filtered water and pictures of you
and i'm not coming out until this is all over



WHAT IS HERE WAS DANGEROUS
AND REPULSIVE TO US
THIS MESSAGE IS A WARNING
ABOUT DANGER



the coast disappeared when the sea drowned the sun
i knew no words to share it with anyone
the boundaries of language i quietly cursed
and all the different names for the same thing


maybe maybe they'll stay true
my seeds will cross and then take root
and leave you to an empty room
lonely lonely that is you



THE DANGER IS IN
A PARTICULAR LOCATION
IT INCREASES TOWARD A CENTER
THE CENTER OF DANGER IS HERE
OF A PARTICULAR SIZE AND SHAPE
AND BELOW US





and i'm screaming at the top of my lungs
pretending the echoes belong to someone
someone i used to know



THE DANGER IS UNLEASHED ONLY
IF YOU SUBSTANTIALLY DISTURB
THIS PLACE PHYSICALLY

THIS PLACE IS BEST SHUNNED
AND LEFT UNINHABITED


Forbidding Blocks
A network of hundreds of house-sized stone blocks, dyed black and arranged in an irregular square grid, suggesting a network of "streets" which feel ominous and lead nowhere. The blocks are intended to make a large area entirely unsuitable for farming or other future use.



THE DANGER IS STILL PRESENT IN YOUR TIME AS IT WAS IN OURS
THE DANGER IS TO THE BODY
AND IT CAN KILL
THE FORM OF THE DANGER IS AN EMANATION OF ENERGY



until our shell simply cannot hold all our insides in
and that's when we'll explode
and it won't be a pretty sight









and we'll become...