Gamma Garden — WA LIU

Gamma Garden
2022
Single-channel video
10 min 28 sec

“Gamma Garden” is a video essay exploring how military technologies and ambitions to modify nature are now infiltrating our lives and breeding unease amid climate change. Underwater kelp forests in California were burned to make black gunpowder during World War I, but many are now turned into biofuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Cloud seeding was first weaponized by the U.S. to extend the rainy season in the Vietnam War. But it is now widely deployed in Asia and the Middle East by countries competing in rainmaking amid worsening droughts. During the Atomic Age after World War II, “gamma gardens” were built to induce desirable mutations in crops through gamma radiation. Now, mutation breeding is used to solve the food crisis in the Global South.

Ironically, many technologies once developed for wars are now refashioned to combat global warming. They shape our daily lives through food, weather and news. This video reveals the symmetry between the war among humans and the war on nature, between humanity’s unbridled pursuit of power and self-entitlement to exploit nature. As we modify the natural environment, the world also becomes a laboratory that breeds our own irreversible change. The uncertain future is unfolding.

Original Music © Yang Bao

伽马花园
2022
单频影像
10分28秒
原创音乐 © Yang Bao

《伽马花园》关注于人类军事科技和改造自然的野心，正在如何渗透我们的日常生活，并在全球气候变化中滋生不安。一战期间，加州水下的海藻森林被焚烧成灰，用来制造黑火药和炸药。然而现在，这些海藻正被转化为生物燃料，以减少温室气体的排放。人工降雨技术最早由美国武器化，在越战中用来延长越南的雨季。如今随着干旱加剧，很多亚洲和中东国家广泛使用人造雨技术，竞争降雨。在二战后的原子时代，人们建造了很多“伽马花园”，通过伽马射线来诱发农作物的基因突变，从而培育优秀的新品种。近些年，这种辐射诱变育种技术正在用来解决发展中国家的粮食危机。

讽刺的是，很多曾经为战争所开发的技术，正被重新打造成全球变暖的解决方法，这些科技通过食物、天气和新闻，逐渐改变我们的日常生活。这件影像作品揭示了一系列矛盾与对称关系：人类之间的战争与人类和自然之间的战争、人类追求权力的肆无忌惮与剥削自然的理所当然。当我们在不断改造自然环境的同时，世界也变成了一个巨大的实验室，在我们的身体里孕育不可逆转的变化，充满不确定性的未来正在展开。

Image & Video References:
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); University of Washington, Nasjonalbiblioteket, via Wikimedia Commons; Longjourneys, Lightleak Films, Oleksandr Umanskyi, Serhii, Arnaud laqueyrie, Wheat field, Video rost, Ascione, Mrzproducer, Designprojects, 24Novembers, Zblaster, via Adobe Stock; ABC News; Frank Schersche, via The LIFE.