The Nuclear Chronicles: Design Research on the Landscapes of the U.S. Nuclear Highway

In this tongue-in-cheek treatise from Madl (Parametric Design for Landscape Architects), the dangers of America’s nuclear industry are illustrated in speculative graphic narratives. Set along the “Nuclear Highway” (the unofficial name for sites along Interstate 25 from New Mexico to Wyoming), Madl’s alternative history imagines five what-if scenarios ranging from the curious to the darkly comical. In “The Myopic Truck Driver,” armored trucks driving nuclear waste to the Yucca Mountain storage site perform double duty as seed spreaders—yet their supposed ecological mission actually plants irradiated seeds and thereby claims more nuclear territory. In “A Slip of the Pen,” an H-bomb accidentally detonates in the desert (as almost actually happened in 1957), causing the evacuation of Albuquerque. Among the stranger entries is “Cultivated Aftermath,” which finds a family returning to their now-radioactive ranch near the Trinity test site dressed as “nuclear cowboys” with wide-brimmed hats and gas masks. Madl’s presentation of these horrifying fictions is framed with self-parodying academese, and is derived both from declassified documents and histories such as Trinity’s Children. While often fascinating, they also feel truncated and lightly sketched, with static art that references Moebius and Anders Nilsen. It’s an intriguing mash-up that never quite coheres. (Nov.)