have a nice day
Have a Nice Day, 2002
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Keith Miller, Pete Latrofa and Janine Fron
Martyl
Virtual Photograph/Digital PHSCologram Sculpture: Duratrans, Kodalth, Plexiglas
30 x 40 inches
A painterly mountainscape inspired by Martyl’s “Tent Rocks” looms in the background, ominously juxtaposed with Martyl’s “Doomsday Clock”, initially designed in 1947 as a magazine cover for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The clock is instantly recognized as a symbol of the nuclear arms race. Its relevance is of even more importance today, with rogue nations now admitting to possessing nuclear weapons, and recent increased terrorist activity. We can only hope this work is not a symbol of what is to come, as we try to make light of the dark humor in the title—”Have a Nice Day”.
“Ellen Sandor was right on the cusp of science iconography and art in the mid-1980s, which is something I was always interested in and tried to bring about in the beginning. Ellen was one of the first to grab the ideas to show you how to breach science and art. It takes someone who has aesthetic qualities. Scientists know their equations are beautiful, which is really hard to understand. The artist has another dimension and can see the beauty in microbes. Photography has advanced so now that to combine the two is something young artists all take for granted. Ellen was one of the first to use scientific processes to create a combination of art and science.” — Martyl
video excerpts from virtual reality tour
Virtual Reality Tour Through the Doomsday Clock, Detail, 2018-19
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Diana Torres and Azadeh Gholizadeh
Carolina Cruz-Neira, Jason Zak, Tanner Marshall and Jaimes Krutz, George W. Donaghey Emerging Analytics Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
William Robertson, Co-Founder/CTO Digital Museum of Digital Art
Special thanks to Janine Fron
Voiceover by Rachel Bronson President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists In Memory of Martyl
Produced 15 years after the original Have a Nice Day, this body of work reveals heightened threats of nuclear warfare, growing tensions between nations, and environmental factors of climate change, along with positive scientific discoveries that could im-prove medicine and have many more beneficial applications.
In this reimagined virtual landscape the player explores the Los Alamos, desert site of Project Y and navigates through the Doomsday Clock timeline, from 1947 to 2019. All the textures of the landscape are a montage of Martyl’s landscape paintings of the same location. Each station contains visual cues that symbolize major events that occurred in specific year. The tour is narrated by Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Virtual Reality Tour Through the Doomsday Clock, Detail, 1968
Ellen Sandor & (art)n: Chris Kemp, Diana Torres, and Azadeh Gholizadeh
Carolina Cruz-Neira, Jason Zak, Tanner Marshall and Jaimes Krutz, George W. Donaghey Emerging Analytics Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
William Robertson, Co-Founder/CTO Digital Museum of Digital Art
Special thanks to Janine Fron
Voiceover by Rachel Bronson President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists In Memory of Martyl