10,000 Year Warning Project: Individualized Instinctual Manipulation

The question posed to us for this project was on how to create a warning system to last 10,000 years. The US has toxic waste that won't be safe to access until then, so there's an issue of creating some way to notify people of the future about the waste. I was paired with Austin Fenske to create a solution. We used my idea of creating what I call "individualized instinctual manipulation" to deter people from entering the site of nuclear waste. To represent our idea, we made a video, with the help of Jake Miller. The video replicates the feelings experienced by a person interacting with our piece.

I was influenced by Project MK Ultra in coming up with the idea for our solution. Project MK Ultra was an experiment run by the CIA throughout the fifties and into the early seventies. MK Ultra was primarily concerned with what they called “research in behavioral modification.” Participants were largely uninformed of what the experiments entailed. People were unwittingly drugged, sexually abused, isolated, tortured, hypnotized, and put through sensory deprivation. The CIA was interested in mind control and behavioral engineering through various combined methods, focusing largely on the use of LSD to alter the mental state of their test subjects. Reading about MK Ultra back in 2009 got me interested in the idea of seriously modifying someone’s perception and state of mind through sensory cues.

Concept:

In order to deter people from digging up nuclear waste for the next 10,000 years, an invisible boundary of aural and mental cues should be created around the site of nuclear waste. These cues should tap into people’s instincts, so that their own bodies urge them to stay away from the site.  When people pass the boundary line, they should be assaulted by a high-pitched, uncomfortable  yet inaudible ringing. Fear is a powerful emotion, an instinct meant for preservation. Include mental associations within this boundary. The associations should be personalized, representing  whatever each trespasser is most afraid of and affected by. These associations should not be seen visually, but felt mentally. It’s important that the associations are just at the edges of consciousness, so people are unable to reason with the fear. Trespassers will be overwhelmed with confusing images, associations, fears, and sounds all present within their own minds.

 

Video Stills: