The Evolution of Silence, Version 2 is an animation and generative video created by hand coding in Processing (not AI). It is a moving collage of dynamic arrangements of archival images of the LA Darling mannequins used in the civil defense program and connected to two nuclear detonations at the Nevada Test Site. I began this video project in Casey Reas’s “Generative Cinema with Processing” workshop at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in July 2018. I premiered the work at the 2018 Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC. Special thanks to Matt Hedt and Casey Reas.

credits:
Visuals, research, programming ©Rachele Riley, 2018
Archival photos are courtesy of The National Archives, Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, Las Vegas News Bureau, Cahlan Research Library (Nevada State Museum), Special Collections Library at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Nuclear Testing Archive, National Atomic Testing Museum, DigitalGlobe Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, United States Geological Survey, National Nuclear Security Administration, and Library of Congress.
Sound: Djgriffin “Gongs & Bells” and Plagasul “Ambiences”

Version 2 has been made possible in part with funding from the University of North Carolina Greensboro’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and School of Art. Additional thanks to Derek Toomes, Chris Cassidy, Elizabeth Leplattenier, Danniel Gaidula, Dan McCafferty, Justin Lincoln, and Ali McGhee.