Snapshot of our projects

Operation Hurricane and Operation Buffalo archival film courtesy of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum. Photo by Tania Safi

10 Minutes to Midnight immersive projection installation. Operation Hurricane and Operation Buffalo archival film courtesy of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum. Photo by Tania Safi

Since 2014 the Nuclear Futures program has held over 20 creative residencies delivering workshops, skills development, mentorships, cultural exchange and collaborative art-making in Australia and overseas. Partnerships between international artists and atomic survivor communities have produced innovative creative works including immersive projection installations, photo media exhibitions, sculpture, a theatre script and radio program, books and digital artworks. In 2015, Nuclear Futures had public presentations as part of the 2015 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Yalata Festival and the ’10 Minutes to Midnight’ showcase at The Block, Queensland University of Technology.

Our key projects are:

  • A program of arts activities at Balaklava, a South Australian community that is home to Maralinga veteran and Australian Nuclear Veterans Association leader Avon Hudson. This includes a community photography project, a new Australian play about nuclear veterans by playwright John Romeril, and a sequence of multi-arts workshops leading to installations and community showcases. The 10 Minutes to Midnight showcase was presented as part of the 2015 Adelaide Fringe Festival and included the Portrait of a Whistleblower exhibition with photomedia by Jessie Boylan.
  • Photo by Jessie Boylan

    Photo by Jessie Boylan

    A creative program based at Yalata in the far west of South Australia, including a large scale sculpture project symbolizing the resilience of atomic survivors, a new play telling the story of community migration after the Emu and Maralinga bombs, and an illustrated book on the life and works of a family of local artists. We are also curating digital art works to present indigenous knowledge related to survival of people and country. Activities were held at the inaugural Yalata Festival in June, 2015, and a full public showcase including the digital installation “Ngurini (Searching)” was premiered at The Block in Brisbane, QUT.

  • A program of cultural exchange, including a sequence of international workshops for youth leaders, using digital arts and storytelling to create networks amongst survivor communities in Australia, Japan, Marshall Islands and Kazakhstan. The first workshop took place in the Marshall Islands to commemorate the 60 year anniversary of the Bravo test; the second workshop in Hiroshima coincided with the 70 year anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the third plans to commemorate the commencement of Britain’s series of testing at Maralinga in the South Australian desert. Cultural exchange between representatives from Yalata and Japanese hibakusha in particular have proved to be rich and rewarding.
  • Youth leadership workshop participants 2014. Photo by Jessie Boylan

    Youth leadership workshop participants 2014. Photo by Jessie Boylan

    We are also producing creative documentation and website material in the form of ‘webisodes’, documentary films, games, blogs and photo-essays; and in 2016 we will present a touring season of live showcases in Australia, Japan and Britain, featuring performances and installations of multi-media art works. All our activities are documented, and we are sponsoring the archiving of records held by indigenous communities, nuclear veterans and other atomic survivors.

Creative works include:

For more posts and updates, visit our Blog and Nuclear Futures Facebook page.