“Abandoned Narratives”

Virtual reality project built with AFrame
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For this project, we were tasked with creating a room with a narrative. In thinking about what exactly constitutes a narrative, my mind immediately turns to action. A narrative is a story — an account of connected events with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or is that merely a crude reduction?

So how does one convey a narrative without the use of action? With a single snapshot in time? There must be an implication that something has occurred and that we, as the viewer, are simply witnessing the aftermath.

So I started thinking about abandoned spaces.

Graffiti. Decay. The traces of society and human life being erased by crumbling architecture and newly sprouted plants. These images, in my mind, allude to an inherently mysterious narrative. What happened? And why? And, in the most disturbing sense, who? Whose life was cut short and who was responsible?

One image, in particular, stood out to me. It’s this photo of a Ferris Wheel, taken in an abandoned amusement park in Pripyat, Ukraine. The amusement park was set to open on May Day of 1986. The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, and the Ferris Wheel was never used. An eerie reminder of what could have been.

Now, I’m not the only one fascinated with this image. HBO created a mini-series, “Chernobyl,” and there has been a recent surge in public interest, photo journalism, and even art exhibits occurring in the sight of the famous nuclear disaster.

After tourism companies reported a 30-40% uptick in visitors to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone this past summer, the Ukrainian government announced that Chernobyl will become an official tourist site, complete with routes, waterways, and checkpoints.

In researching this project, a new narrative emerged: why are we so fascinated with the darkest moments in human history? The Holocaust. Fukushima. Chernobyl. Is it historical detachment, altruistic humanitarianism, Freud’s theory of the “death drive", or a simple appreciation for the macabre?

This isn’t fiction or fantasy, but the greatest nuclear disaster in human history, with at least 100 reported deaths, and possibly several thousand human lives gravely affected in the long-term. Many people are offended that their disaster has become a tourist attraction.

This narrative, like all narratives, has no clear beginning and no end. All we can do is glance at snapshots and wonder.