4. place context — topology of violence

Topology of Violence

00. about ToV

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.

...

Art Publishing
Nuclear Facultad
Medium Message
Place Context
Making
Audience
Impact

colophon

T&F: What is your relationship to your place(s) and context(s), which elements of your work operate in reference to it, and what contribution do you want to make?

D: Sandia National Laboratories, funded by the US Department of Energy, is located within the Albuquerque metropolitan area. Its main campus supports nuclear weapons’ research and development. Sandia employees are my neighbors.

The drive to the lab takes me past strip malls and neighborhoods where life is precarious. Then contrast between the mission of the lab to research, develop and test rockets for nuclear weapons and the reality of the city is not a theoretical paradox but a daily, visible, and unavoidable contradiction.

Sandia is a colossal economic engine in Albuquerque. It provides stable, high-paying jobs for a small segment of the population, creating a privileged class whose livelihood is directly tied to the weapons’ economy. This creates a deep, unspoken social contract and a political imperative to never question the lab's fundamental mission. To critique the weapons program is framed as an attack on your neighbor's job and the city's economic stability. This silences dissent and creates community-wide dissonance and moral injury.