Martin Pfeiffer is an anthropologist and nuclear abolitionist who studies how we create and circulate meanings about, with, and through nuclear weapons and technology. In this session, Martin will join artist Andrew Paul Keiper in conversation about nuclear culture, history and art, memes, and what it takes to lick the bomb. Preceding the event, we will a stream Andrew’s audio from his 2018 collaboration with Kei Ito, Afterimage Requiem.

This event is in conjunction with Elongated Shadows, a 2020-2021 apexart Open Call exhibition curated by Liz Faust. On view online from September 5- October 24, 2020.

Andrew Paul Keiper is an artist whose work centers on sound, through installation, sound design and music. His recent work addresses themes including the legacy of nuclear weaponry, race and white supremacy in Baltimore, and the frontier between sound art and experimental music. A professor in MICA's Animation and Film & Video programs, Andrew received his BFA in Painting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2002 and his MFA from MICA's Photographic and Electronic Media program in 2016. In 2016, Andrew received the Rubys Artist Project Grant along with his collaborator Kei Ito to produce their epic scale work, Afterimage Requiem, and in 2019 Andrew and Kei exhibited selections of their work together at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in a show called Archives Aflame.

Martin Pfeiffer is an anthropologist, free-lance gonzo journalist and researcher, and PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. He is also a Scholar in UNM's National Security Studies Program. Part of Martin's current research focuses on the creation, circulation, and contestation of meaning about nuclear weapons at official nuclear weapon heritage sites such as the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos. Part of this project involves filing Freedom of Information Act requests to add to nuclear weapon history, journalism, and scholarship; analyze governmental nuclear discourses over time; and to examine the governmentality of State information management practices under the rubrics of "security” and "transparency.” Martin received his BA in Political Science (2007) and MA in Anthropology (2012) from Louisiana State University.