In Region 10 (2023) performers sing a heartfelt karaoke rendition of Talking Head’s Life During Wartime (1979). The performance takes place in front of a backdrop of two massive 1950’s nuclear airplane engines, a showpiece of the Idaho National Laboratory which is located in the middle of the Idaho desert and is one of the US government’s “superfund” sites. These stand in an expansive desert backdrop of grass and sage brush. The lyrics evoke a future dystopia of wartime and subterfuge.
The engines stand as monuments to an unrealized technological aspiration; to provide a solution to humanities burgeoning energy needs. Toxic nuclear waste and potential nuclear disaster still haunt us. Singing has long been part of protest traditions, building collective strength, remembering submerged histories, and voicing alternative futures.
