[ISEA2024] Paper: Katri Naukkarinen & Aurora Del Rio — The Atomic Kinship: Re-Imagining Radioactive Agency Through Artistic Research

Abstract

Keywords:
Alchemy, Artistic Research, Belief Systems, Collaborative Approaches, Deep Time, Experimental Art, Nuclear Culture, Practice-based Research, Radioactive Agency, Transdisciplinary Exploration

This article explores the space of potentiality in-between interpretation and failure, in re-imagining radioactive agency within the framework of artistic research. By presenting the collaborative project Atomic Kinship, the article references an existing idea, that of a cult of radioactivity, which was proposed in relation to the realization of a repository for spent nuclear waste, as a means of transmitting cautionary messages about the dangers of encountering buried radioactive waste through deep time. The article explores the physics of radioactivity and proceeds by presenting historical connections between its discovery and photography, highlighting the interconnectivity of art and research. By acknowledging the material agency of radioactivity, the collaborative artwork Decay Cyphers speculates on the possibility of decoding messages from radioactive sources, to open up questions about the nature of matter, existence, time and belief. The Atomic Kinship thus proposes to consider an affective relation to radioactivity; an emotional connection with this nonhuman agent that can embrace different temporalities and dis/placements of radioactive particles, through the introduction of a deity. By envisioning a communal way of relating to radioactivity, the project intends to open questions about the ethical value of these reflections in addressing the issue of radioactive inheritance.

  • Katri Naukkarinen is a professional artist and doctoral researcher at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. Her research in the field of contemporary art considers the limits of human vision and explores frequencies and scales beyond them. With the help of photographic means, science apparatus and poetry, Naukkarinen explores insights that might arise from within everyday environments, from the heres and nows, if that vision was expanded. Naukkarinen holds BAs in Aesthetics and Photography and an MFA in Photography from Aalto, with studies at Tama Art University.
  • Aurora Del Rio is a professional artist and doctoral researcher at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. Her artistic work is transdisciplinary, including video, performance, sound, installation, painting, and bioart. Her research looks at beliefs to consider the state of tension between ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ in the creation of personal and collective realities. Her current focus is on radioactive contamination as a psychic entity, through the means of ritualistic practices. Del Rio holds a BA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts Bologna, and an MFA in Creative Practice from Transart Institute Berlin/New York.