Elemental Memory: The Solid Fluidity of the Elements in the Nuclear Era

Sasha Engelmann

doi:10.1177/02632764211039011

Abstract

The epistemological challenges of the Anthropocene trouble distinctions of solid and fluid. In this contribution, the author proposes, after Gabrielle Hecht, that the nuclearity of the Anthropocene contributes significantly to destabilising these categories. Nuclear materials and ideas of nuclearity force (re)consideration of deep timescales and imperceptible processes, problematising fixed material ontologies. The article engages with nuclear matters and queries the logic of solids and fluids by developing the notion of elemental memory. An attention to elemental memory – an element’s capacity to auto-affect over time – reveals the inadequacy of terms like solid and fluid, and highlights the expressiveness of solid fluid substances. Empirically, the author demonstrates, first, how elemental memory informs the solid-fluid processuality of radioactive glasses, especially trinitite. Second, engaging with the work of artists Mari Keto and Erich Berger, she addresses the slow auto-transformations of radioactive minerals.

Highlights

In their research on Solid Fluids in the Anthropocene, Tim Ingold and Cristian Simonetti (2018: 1) suggest that ‘traditional divisions couched in terms of the ‘‘softness’’ or ‘‘hardness’’ of the phenomena under investigation, and the ‘‘shorter’’ or ‘‘longer’’ durations of their formation, have dissolved.’ They argue that the epistemological challenges of the Anthropocene trouble historical distinctions of the solid and fluid
Following work by Karen Barad and Vanessa Agard-Jones, and the findings of geology and nuclear forensics, I argue that attending to the elemental memory of the sands and soils at the Trinity Test Site requires an appreciation of solid fluids
I explored the solid-fluid properties of soil, sand and glass through geology and nuclear forensics, I gestured to a more capacious notion of solid fluidity that applies to other forms of matter, whether born of nuclear events or earth processes

Summary

Introduction

This is because the fission or fusion of unstable isotopes releases enormous energy and produces radical state changes in matter It is because the shocks of the nuclear era have compelled scholars, artists and citizens to ask: ‘what makes things ‘‘nuclear’’, and how do we know?’ These questions probe matters of ontology: ‘questions about the things and categories of things that exist’ They complicate the assumption that materials, technologies or landscapes can be classified in fixed, transparently empirical and essentialist terms. Following work by Karen Barad and Vanessa Agard-Jones, and the findings of geology and nuclear forensics, I argue that attending to the elemental memory of the sands and soils at the Trinity Test Site requires an appreciation of solid fluids. I argue that artistic practices engaging the ‘ground zeros’ of atomic violence or the ‘zero time’ of Anthropocene discourses play a vital role in challenging myths of the solid and the fluid and associated bifurcations in post-Enlightenment thought

Notes toward Elemental Memory

Conclusion