PURE SIGNS

Symbols without meaning

Symbols without Meaning

What happens when something so new, something so unprecedented, happens that it doesn’t look like anything anyone has ever seen before? What happens when something is so new that it can’t be seen?
Historian Peter Hales notes that the atomic explosion is a “pure sign,” a visual symbol so unlike anything else that, for a moment, it has no meaning in any culture. Pure signs are like visual blank slates, icons that gradually acquire meaning and symbolism based on how they are used and reproduced. Many of the visual icons that signal global crises begin as pure signs.
In the case of the mushroom cloud—perhaps the most powerful symbol of nuclear technology that exists today—the forces shaping its visual appearance acted quite literally. For the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 6, 1945, Bockscar (the nickname of the plane flying the bomb) was loaded with the latest scientific cameras to record the event as accurately as possible. The unexpected force of the explosion, however, forced the plane to veer off course shortly after the bomb’s detonation, turning all of the professional cameras away from the site of the explosion. The only aerial photograph of the Nagasaki mushroom cloud snapped aboard Bockscar was taken by one of the crew members on the plane, using a smuggled amateur camera. Reproduced many times over in magazines and newsreels, the image quickly found its way to the cover of LIFE magazine just eleven days after it was taken. The force of the blast prevented anyone from recording the explosion scientifically, in a way that could convey a sense of scale or provide information on the surroundings. The force of the explosion prevented photographers from giving meaning to the event. What’s left is an ambiguous field of black, white, and grey, a pure sign that makes little sense.

References

1. Hales, Peter B. "The Atomic Sublime." American Studies Spring 31.3 (1991): 5-31. JSTOR. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.