Presented by: Evan Perreault

The Billboard Campaign:The Los Alamos Study Group

And the Nuclear Public SphereAuthor: Joseph Masco

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

• Currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Social Sciences at the University Chicago

• B.A. in Comparative History of Ideas from University of Washington in 1986

• M.A./Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of California at San Diego in 1991 and 1999 respectively

• Held a professorship of Anthropology at the University of Oregon

Joseph Masco

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

Background

• New Mexico is home to:

• more than 2,500 nuclear warheads

• Two of the nation’s nuclear weapons laboratories

• World’s ONLY underground dump of radioactive bomb waste

• Ranks 43rd in the US on income per capita

• Highest rate of working poor/least amount of benefits

• Most Americans have little/no knowledge of continued investments in WMD by the United States

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

The Los Alamos Study Group (LASG)

• A nonproliferation and peace activism group that was formed at the end of the Cold War

• Based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico

• Speak out against nuclear weapon consolidation

• Initiated many campaigns, including the Billboard Campaign

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

Aims

• Masco’s:

• Make the “invisible” visible

• Nuclear Disarmament

• Environmental Protection

• Economic Sustainability

• Social Justice

• Los Alamos Study Group’s:

• Seek to change public policy and prevent implementation of bad policies.

• Promote public education on hazards of the nuclear complex

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

Target Groups

• General public of New Mexico

• Increase awareness of nuclear presence and dangers

• The tourist demographic

• Tell travelers the truth behind this “pristine” landscape

• Large catholic populations in Northern New Mexico

• Provoke conflicting moral situations on the topic of producing weapons of mass destruction

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

• From 1940-1996, the US has spent at least $5.8 trillion on nuclear weapons, making them the third largest expenditure after nonnuclear military and Social Security spending.

• In 2011, the US Government spent $964.8 billions dollars on National Defense

• http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_budget_2012_3.html

Militarism in the US

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

Impacts• New Mexico is part of a rural

American economic space that relies on the Four P’s

• Plutonium

• Poker

• Prison

• Pigs

• Exposed the links between global and local economies

• Provoke consideration of the spheres that the nuclear project act within

Further Research• Compile data on political

figureheads and elected representatives

• Evaluate public movements regarding the reallocation of federal expenditures within the Dept. of Energy

• Studies (surveys) that evaluate the knowledge of the general public in and out of New Mexico on the nuclear complex

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

Conclusion

• Complex nuclear weapons infrastructure

• Immense continued investment into nuclear research and development

• Rising militarism needs to be answered for

• New Mexico is “held hostage” by Washington

• The LASG has effectively turned a purely capitalist and quiet space into a space of political mobilization and citizen critique.

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

References• Masco, Joseph. "The Billboard Campaign: The Los Alamos Study Group and the Nuclear

Public Sphere." Public Culture 17.3 (2005): 487-98. Print.

• http://anthropology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty_member/joseph_p._masco

• Los Alamos Study Group. "LASG Home Page." LASG Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://www.lasg.org/>.

• http://ninohasstories.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/coinci.jpg?w=462

• "Department of Anthropology." Joseph P. Masco. University of Chicago, 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://anthropology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty_member/joseph_p._masco>.

• http://www.nukewatch.org/facts/nwd/SimpleFacts043104.pdf

• http://bber.unm.edu/econ/sttpipci.htm

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: THE LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP AND THE NUCLEAR PUBLIC SPHERE

Questions?