︎
76 years later, the
official narrative of the atomic bomb continues to focus only on two poles:The USA as the place of
manufacture of the bomb; which is an important techno-scientific achievement; and Japan as the final
destination of the bomb; victim of irradiation; a real human disaster.
This project tries to
establish the missing link with the city of Shinkolobwe in DR Congo where day
and night, the locals dug, mined and handled the extremely radioactive special
uranium that was used in the Manhattan Project without proper protection. This
activity has irradiated the miners, who in turn, by moving around the country,
have irradiated their families and many other people. The waste materials left
on the soil surface also irradiated the soil, the phreatic water table and the
vegetation.
By removing the city of Shinkolobwe from the official map of
colonial Congo and refusing to mention Shinkolobwe in the official history of
the atomic bomb, Belgium and the United States have for a long time succeeded
in hiding the impact of irradiation which necessitates be evaluated, monitored,
documented and repaired. Unfortunately none want to be accountable for these
crimes. This project tries to rearchive this voluntarily forgotten page.
this 360 map work seeks to manipulate Google’s Streetview technology, asking if we can dislocate, re-map, complicate, and exploit existing models to deepen and disrupt the discourse on technopolitics in Africa and abroad.
︎
diagram: Joe-Yves Salankang Sa-Ngol & Lo-Def Fim Factory, 2021
︎
