Disinformation - Nuclear Bunker TV clip

This sequence relates to the sound installation and concert event held in September 1998 in the decommissioned RAF cold war ROTOR radar bunker and Regional Seat of Government, under a field at Troywood, near Anstruther, Fife, Scotland. The bunker was built over 24,000 square feet, 100 feet underground, inside a subterranean tungsten Faraday cage designed to protect RAF radio communications from the disruptive effects of the Electromagnetic Pulse (or EMP) radiated by the flash of an atom bomb.

Disinformation exhibited the "National Grid" sub-bass sound installation, in the National Grid access chute in the bunker's main entry corridor. The "National Grid" sound installation introduced infrasonic (ultra-low frequency audio) sub-beats into a bass drone created by amplifying electromagnetic / radio noise from live mains electricity.

The "Theophany" (Voice of God) sound installation was also exhibited in the (intensely surreal surroundings of the) bunker's underground chapel. The conceptual premise of exhibiting "Theophany" here was the hypothesis that noise derived from the radio recordings of Very Low Frequency (VLF) "whistler" phenomena (produced by electric storms) that were used in this exhibit, should (based on a careful reading of scientific, peace-studies, military and non-proliferation literature) closely resemble recordings of hydrodynamic whistlers radiated by EMPs in a nuclear war. As an exercise in theological sarcasm, "Theophany" identifies a putative Voice of God as analogous to an electromagnetic "wildlife recording" of a nuclear Apocalypse.

Before anybody gets the wrong idea however, it should be pointed out that Disinformation is a secular (and humanist) project - as discussed in a BBC radio interview about the bunker event, "Theophany" is intended as a parody of a work of the same name by the religious composer John Tavener. There was also a conceptual twist relating to the theological implications of scientist Robert Oppenheimer's (sacriligious) use of the name "Trinity" for the famous nuclear test site at Jornada del Muerto ("Death Tract"), Alamogordo, White Sands, New Mexico. These ideas were discussed in a leaflet circulated to visitors, and this theme is also explored in Disinformation's "Spellbound" video installation - subtitled "An Allegorical Portrait of J Robert Oppenheimer".

An article about this event called "Silence of the Suns" by Simon Worthington (with photographs by Disinformation) appeared in Mute magazine issue 12, and is available on the www.metamute.com website. The interviewee is Lesley O'Hare of Fife Council, who financed the event - thank you very much to Lesley, and to all the staff at the facility!

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[bob4jjjj]

WoW. You put a lot of information with the video C4eye. I hope everyone reads it!

I have not been down to see it, but I heard it was worth a visit and is more intresting than you would think. Nice little film, would have been nicer if there had been a wee bit more of it.

Thanks for posting.