Proposal

When presented with the problem of discouraging future societies from opening a storage of nuclear waste in the desert of New Mexico, needless to say, several ideas were exchanged. The idea is meant to be sustainable for ten thousand years and must account for several factors. We began with narrowing down the factors we could absolutely account for in the present, for example, the more reproachable qualities of humans like greed. After discarding ideas involving spikes and even labyrinths, we decided to take a different approach. Our concept for the infant sculpture is based on the idea of creating something aesthetically pleasing, blends with the organic qualities of the landscape, and does little to incite curiosity or controversy. We mainly utilized the principles of scale, dominance or emphasis, and in construction, texture as well. The sculpture is intended to be made of a strong metal such as steel and covered with a mix of materials that resemble the landscape and actual material from the area, such as local minerals and rocks. The sculpture will be large enough to cover the entire area of the waste location with the idea that it will be difficult to move or destroy with easily accessible tools. We also propose use of local native species of plants including several varieties of succulents and cactus. We also would like to draw inspiration from a similar solution oriented project by Mel Chin. In his work, he utilizes plants called “hyper accumulators” that draw heavy metals from the soil. Given that these were able to survive the environment, these plants would be included with the native species in a natural, but aesthetically pleasing surrounding “garden”. We also propose that the land be treated as a state park, to discourage development of the land for residential or commercial purposes. With this in mind, we did however revisit earlier ideas of more detrimental qualities. We decided ultimately to incorporate into this sculpture some devices such as a motion sensitive high frequency sound. When a viewer gets with so many feet, a high frequency noise will be released intending to cause pain, but no severe harm. We also propose that the sculpture include either tear gas or a motion sensitive release of a drug that will render a person incapacitated but not severely injured. We based these concepts around crowd control tactics used by police forces. What is most effective about this solution is that while the sculpture emulates the qualities of the landscape and is unassuming; it also is large enough to protect the waste from future use and does include security measures as well. We began to structure this idea around a parenting method of “removing the forbidden”. Our argument is that a large, obviously protected structure invites curiosity and rebellious entry. If the object is somewhat approachable and incites no conflict or curiosity, people are less likely to attempt entry. The fall back measures of the gas, foliage, and sound are meant to discourage those that would make such attempts regardless.