{"id":6987,"date":"2025-01-17T16:26:23","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/?p=6987"},"modified":"2025-01-21T12:33:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T17:33:54","slug":"playtime-in-nuclear-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/2025\/01\/17\/playtime-in-nuclear-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Playtime in Nuclear Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Members
\u201cOperation Windmill Expedition Members Playing in the Snow<\/a>\u201d by unknown author (obtained by the Smithsonian Institution Archives<\/a> [SIA]), downloaded from flickr<\/em>, is licensed in the Public Domain<\/a> in accordance with the SIA Terms of Use<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cClock_Winding.aiff<\/a>\u201d (converted to mp3) by jacobsteel<\/a>, downloaded from freesound.org<\/em>, is licensed under CC BY 4.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Browsing photos from a 1947 naval expedition into Antarctica by the United States<\/a> led me to reflect on scientific advancements of the era as well as the nation\u2019s political climate from that year. After some cursory readings, two primary developments from that year jumped out at me as particularly interesting. The first is the formation of the \u201cDoomsday Clock<\/a>\u201d by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists<\/a>, measuring the global threat posed by various technologies and crises along an abstract scale, depicted as hands on a clock moving towards midnight. Fittingly, this year\u2019s Doomsday Clock announcement is quickly approaching, with the 2025 announcement scheduled for January 28. The second development contextualizing my image\/audio combination is the signing of the Truman Doctrine<\/a> in March of the same year, effectively beginning the Cold War following the end of World War II. Asserting the United States\u2019 opposition to the rise of Communism in Eastern Europe, this address contributed immensely to military buildup and technological advancement in the mid twentieth century. The global push to explore the cosmos sped up rapidly, as did the proliferation of nuclear weapons domestically and abroad.

The image speaks to a nationalistic earnestness to push the boundaries of human exploration, to expand American culture and solidify its interests abroad. There is an uncanny jubilance to the young men\u2019s motion, made eerie by the context of an uncharted frontier and the presence of an immense military vessel dominating the background. The sound, taken from a wind-up clock, nods to the creation and symbolic \u201cwinding up\u201d of the aforementioned Doomsday Clock at the start of the Cold War. The sound creates a feeling of unease, of expectation, as the young men from the image, seemingly unaware of the gravity of their situation, both physically and historically, are suspended in perpetual play. Reading further still into the juxtaposition of the sound with image, there is a suggested dark humor, a double-entendre suggesting play amidst nuclear winter. The image is free of distinguishable flora or fauna, instead consisting of three simple elements: man, machine, snow. Perhaps the combination of image and audio could be read as speculative fiction- a glimpse into life in the post-apocalypse, of peace amidst armageddon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaytime in Nuclear Winter\u201d by Craig Moore is licensed under CC BY 4.0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Browsing photos from a 1947 naval expedition into Antarctica by the United States led me to reflect on scientific advancements of the era as well as the nation\u2019s political climate from that year. After some cursory readings, two primary developments...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-6987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student","tag-cc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6987"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7154,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6987\/revisions\/7154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}