Contrusting a New Narrative of Nuclear Waste

Because of the contamination of Coldwater Creek, some activities, which sound so innocent, such as playing in and around the creek, riding bicycle along the creek, and planting and landscaping in the back yards, might cause potential radiation exposure from the nuclear waste of World War II.

When Karen talked about her childhood, she said that she used to play softball in the ball field near the creek in high school, and even younger she and her friends would make “mud pies”, using berries from the shrubs growing along the creek and the dirt on the field, mixing them with milk weed seed pots, pretending they were cooking. “That was a fun thing for kids to do”, said Karen. However, she did not know that then, this “fun thing” would get her into the exposure of nuclear waste.

"Nature's toys vary from one place to another. Nevertheless, children almost everywhere have access to certain kinds of natural play materials, including water, sand, clay, and mud. (Tuan 1978)" However, children who grow along this contaminated creek, and other children around the world who live in contaminated environments, were deprived of this right. Here comes the idea of providing a “Verified Mud” product, which is clean enough for children to play with, along with a mud kitchen kit, was selected as the installation.

Cooking recipes, “offers itself as a test case for an investigation into the emergence of conventional forms and their relation to sociohistorical change” (Gorlach 2008). It also represents the large literacy practices, which has a long history of technology development, and is representative of multimodal meaning making passed between generations (Rumsey 2009). Human has been using fire for around 1.5 million years, and the earliest known evidence of bread-making dates back to 14,000 years ago. The making of food has passed down generations, through words and deeds, verbal or written, in person or television. The actual method might change because of technology development, the core remains intact.

The message of “Do not use local dirt for mud pie” is translated into a “recipe” for children’s play. On one hand, it is not a recipe for an actual food, rather, it is an instruction for children to play. The imitation of adult behavior (cooking) however, represents the learning process from the parents (Rosekrans 1967). This warning message would be conveyed through this recipe. On the other hand, it shows the irony of not allowing playing with dirt, which is an ordinary and innocent children’s play in most everywhere in the United States.

The first is the movie trailer. The story is inspired by Karen’s childhood and what Just Mum have been doing, however it focuses mainly on the right of children to play in their landscape freely. For children, nature is the best toy. As I talk with Karen however, she didn't know what she's done caused her exposed to radioactive waste. In my movie trailer, a woman makes mud pie from the contaminated soil and send it to the governor who has been ignoring the community. And she asks people all over the country to make a mud pie, and then send her the recipe which will be combined into a book. That's what I am thinking to make people aware of that some kids don't have the right

The second part of my project is the marker system. Simply speaking it is a mound playground that provides safe dirt and sand for children to play. The shape comes from the nuclear mound, however in this case it's welcoming children to play in. The height prevents contamination from flooding, and the ladder itself, represents the detachment for children to be on ground. The simplified installation also presents these two ideas, a ladder, and clear mud at the top.