The Politics of Invisibility: Visualizing Legacies of Nuclear Imperialisms

Simple item page
aut.relation.endpage151
aut.relation.issue2en_NZ
aut.relation.journalJournal of Transnational American Studiesen_NZ
aut.relation.pages28
aut.relation.startpage125
aut.relation.volume11en_NZ
aut.researcherAmundsen, Fiona
dc.contributor.authorAmundsen, Fen_NZ
dc.contributor.authorFrain, SCen_NZ
dc.date.accessioned2020-12-17T01:12:15Z
dc.date.available2020-12-17T01:12:15Z
dc.date.copyright2020-12-16en_NZ
dc.date.issued2020-12-16en_NZ
dc.description.abstractQuestions of visibility, witnessing, and agency are particularly pertinent to post-1945 US and French nuclear testing across Oceania. Images of enormous hovering atomic mushroom clouds have become familiar icons of this testing, while images of the effects of colonial–imperial occupation and ideology in the Pacific are rendered invisible within government-controlled imagery. Alternative forms of visualization are required to be able to (re)see the human experiences that remain central to contemporary Pacific militarization and the legacies of nuclear weapons testing. Images, be they from social media and online platforms, archives, or public exhibitions, have the political potential to make visible Indigenous experiences of nuclear testing and ongoing militarization. Here, our work expands the concept of transnational studies by centering Oceanic, archipelagic, and island thinking. This article explores how contemporary photographic imagery politicizes what has been rendered (in)visible through state-produced imagery, archiving practices, and US national park recognition. Focusing on American-born Chinese visual artist Jane Chang Mi’s series (See Reverse Side.) (2017) and Marshallese photojournalist and filmmaker Leonard Leon’s (@pacific_aesthetics) series of Instagram posts (2019), we argue that their methods of image-making can enable alternative forms of socioethical witnessing and visibility of not only state-produced archival images but also of the Indigenous Pacific communities who are deeply affected by nuclear testing and ongoing militarization. Through close readings of their works, we question how photographic practices communicate the humanity of nuclear military conduct while bringing their viewers closer to the human experience of living in a highly militarized and nuclear context.en_NZ
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Transnational American Studies, 11(2). Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zs4q1hv
dc.identifier.issn1940-0764en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/13890
dc.languageEnglishen_NZ
dc.publisherCalifornia Digital Libraryen_NZ
dc.relation.urihttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zs4q1hv#mainen_NZ
dc.rightsAuthors retain copyright for all content published in Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS). However, authors grant to the journal the right to publish the article under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) license and to make available such content, in any format, in perpetuity. Authors may reproduce, in other contexts, content to which they possess the copyright, although in any subsequent publications JTAS should be acknowledged as the original publisher if that is the case.
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccessen_NZ
dc.subjectImperialismen_NZ
dc.subjectnuclearen_NZ
dc.subjectmilitarismen_NZ
dc.subjectpacificen_NZ
dc.subjectphotographyen_NZ
dc.subjectVisual Studiesen_NZ
dc.titleThe Politics of Invisibility: Visualizing Legacies of Nuclear Imperialismsen_NZ
dc.typeJournal Article
pubs.elements-id396242
pubs.organisational-data/AUT
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Design & Creative Technologies
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Design & Creative Technologies/Art & Design
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Design and Creative Technologies
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Design and Creative Technologies/PBRF Art and Design
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
eScholarship UC item 6zs4q1hv.pdf
Size:
9.95 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Journal article
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
AUT Grant of Licence for Tuwhera Aug 2018.pdf
Size:
276.29 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
School of Art and Design - Te Kura Toi a Hoahoa