Dear all,
Thank you for the support. The actual report (previously unread by me) was the 1984 Thomas Sebeok study called "Communication Measures to Bridge Ten Millennia prepared for the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation (United States). My recollection was from popular magazine article about the report, which I'm still trying to track down, but isn't as important.
There is a similar 1993 study I've been sent, but this one is new to me — though very interesting and I'll read it. The attached is the former, for the curious, and is less than 50 pages. It's a pretty easy read. The latter is 350 pages and I can't say how it is to read because I haven't tried yet!
If this sparks any interest and people want to use this as a foil for discussion that would be interesting, but my query is now complete.
For the record:
1. Slam dunk by Harold Nelson who named it in one.
2. Bonus points to Filippo A. Salustri to attached the link to it
3. Special thanks to Benedict Singleton to found stuff strikingly similar and attached a shopping list of things for me to read.
Cheers, all.
d.
_________________
Dr. Derek B. Miller
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On Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Ann Thorpe wrote:
> Derek,
> I also heard about this project from a public artist who may have been
> involved, Mierle Laderman Ukeles. She described it as a Department of Energy
> project regarding how we should mark nuclear waste storage facilities so
> people would understand them as 'harzardous' thousands of years into the
> future. Sorry I don't have any more of a source than that.
>
> In a related project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists held a
> 'Plutonium Memorial Competition' soliciting hypothetical proposals for a
> leak-proof and securable but highly visible dump for the world's growing
> stockpile of plutonium. This article in ID profiles the winning proposal--to
> site the thing on the mall in Washington DC because, 'It could be easily
> policed there, while silently reproaching lawmakers for their shortsighted
> nuclear policies.'
> http://www.id-mag.com/article/2003_Annual_Design_Review_Concepts_Best_of_Cat
> egory/
>
> Best,
> Ann
>
>
> Dr Ann Thorpe
> .....................................
> Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
> Wates House, 22 Gordon Street London WC1H 0QB, United Kingdom
>
> +44 (0)77 1747 1606
> .....................................
> book: The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability (www.designers-atlas.net)
> blog: http://designactivism.net
> twitter: @atlasann
>
>
>
> > Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 22:15:16 +0100
> > From: Derek Miller <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Does anyone remember: NASA, 1980s, Hazmat, the future
> >
> > I've looked. I can't find it. My compound question is: Does anyone remember
> > what this was, and if so, can you point me to a primary source:
> >
> > Sometime in the 1980s I read a piece about how NASA had commissioned artists
> > (designers?) to try and imagine a future some 10,000 years ahead. Their job
> > was to find a means of communicating that the ground "here" was hazardous and
> > people shouldn't go here. They shouldn't even visit let alone stay, grow
> > crops, etc. The artists were to take almost nothing for granted. Languages may
> > have evolved. Libraries destroyed. Our physical appearances may have changed
> > somewhat. The basic brief was to try and communicate to such people. It may
> > have been Discover magazine (U.S.) and they printed the paintings and ideas
> > and analyzed them.
> >
> > Won't get into a discussion on this until my memory is refreshed. But if
> > anyone remembers this, I would be grateful.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Derek
> >
> > _________________
> > Dr. Derek B. Miller
> > Director
> >
> > The Policy Lab
> > 321 Columbus Ave.
> > Seventh Floor of the Electric Carriage House
> > Boston, MA 02116
> > United States of America
> >
> > Phone
> > +1 617 440 4409
> > Twitter
> > @Policylabtweets
> > Web
> > www.thepolicylab.org
>
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