Archive of Nuclear Harm

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#793
4427
30/10/2014
N.A.J. Taylor, curator Archive of Nuclear Harm
Article

The Archive of Nuclear Harm1 collects material on life and death in the nuclear age. Items in the collection explore the full range of harms − emotional, bodily and ecological − that result from nuclear weapons, accidents and waste. 

The mission is to create an accessible resource deep into the nuclear future. For instance, the governments of Finland and the United States conceive of nuclear harm in timescales of 100,000 to 1,000,000 years, respectively. This will therefore be a cultural institution like no other. 

The collection was established in 2012. It now includes over 1,000 items in its collection, including a small number of items that have been digitized which were previously publicly unavailable such as booklets on medical preparedness for nuclear war, illustrations of the effects of nuclear war, and the personal correspondences of a nuclear planning committee member.

These are the project phases:
Phase 1 − 2012: Launch of the nuclearharm.org online repository to make materials collected either online or in hardcopy accessible to all with an internet connection.
Phase 2 − 2013: nuclearharm.org digitizes and collects over 1,000 items.
Phase 3 − 2015: Relocation of the physical materials in the Archive to Europe, in association with the curator's academic institution. The materials will be accessible to the public by appointment.
Phase 4 − 2020: The opening of a very-long term storage vault. The location will be determined in consultation with the financial sponsor and the Archive's advisors. Discussions are presently underway.

The Archive of Nuclear Harm is part of both the Alternative Pathways to WMD-free Worlds2 project series at The New School in New York City, and the Nuclear Futures3 partnership initiative. Alternative Pathways to WMD-free Worlds is a series of inter-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations convened at The New School in NYC. Nuclear Futures is an international collaboration between artists and atomic survivor communities in Australia, Japan, Kazakhstan and the Marshall Islands.

 

If you have material that may be of interest, please contact:

N.A.J. Taylor
Curator, Archive of Nuclear Harm
93 Kangaloon Rd, Bowral, NSW, 2576, Australia
Email: hi[@]najtaylor.com
Phone: +1 (347) 277 9787

 

1. www.nuclearharm.org
www.facebook.com/NuclearHarm
2. https://medium.com/alternative-pathways-to-wmd-free-worlds
3. http://nuclearfutures.org/