Experimental Proving Grounds of Coast and Sea
Authors: White, N.
Dates: October-December 2010
Abstract:Neal White with the Office of Experiments
Over the last few years, Neal White, has been engaged as artist in residence at the Utah-based organization, The Center for Land Use Interpretation. The Center explores human interaction with the earth's surface, by investigating the manmade landscape as a cultural inscription, something that they believe “can be read to better understand who we are, and what we are doing”.
Experimental Proving Grounds of Coast and Sea, is a micro exhibition that draws on the Office of Experiments archive of research conducted by individuals into secret and intelligence spaces in the UK. Focusing here on the locations across the Jurassic Coast, the exhibition includes some of the extensive material gathered by Mike Kenner on the work of Porton Down research facility, who conducted biological warfare experiments across Lyme Bay in the 1960s and 1970s. By revealing the often overlooked sites of military testing and intelligence gathering, Experimental Proving Grounds… turns the technology and the gaze back on its developers, and reflects on these open secrets situated within our landscape.
http://www.bigpic.org.uk/programme/exploratorylaboratory/artists.aspx#a8
Source: Manual