Research

In a now declassified memorandum from the U.S. "Target Committee" dated 10 May 1945, military generals and Manhattan Project scientists outlined psychological factors in choosing the first atomic bomb target. Under article "E: The Psychological Factors in Target Selection" the memo states: "It was agreed that psychological factors in the target selection were of great importance. Two aspects of this are (1) obtaining the greatest psychological effect against Japan and (2) making the initial use sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it is released" (emphasis mine). These thirteen men made an aesthetic choice for how the U.S. would present their breakthrough in science and technology, and their insistence on a "sufficiently spectacular" bomb resonates through the present day.

My research critically examines the "spectacular" representations of nuclear technoscience, tracing the cultural history of the atomic bomb and related nuclear disasters since 1945. I am committed to understanding music and media as dynamic cultural practices deeply embedded in social and political life. My work integrates close analytical attention to musical scoring and sound design with critiques of geopolitical trends in the "atomic age." By bringing musicology's analytical precision to science and technology studies, this methodology enables a nuanced understanding of cultural forms toward a dynamic conception of the relationship between science and society. This project employs multi-sited, historically grounded methodology that exemplifies interdisciplinary analysis, integrating archival research, aesthetic analysis, and theoretical synthesis to understand how spectacle functions as a mechanism of science communication.

My scholarship contributes to North American music studies by applying new approaches bridging music, media studies, and science and technology studies (STS). Within musicology, I am positioned at the intersection of Cold War studies, sound and media studies, and critical cultural analysis. To STS, I bring musicology's distinctive capacity for detailed aesthetic analysis, revealing science communication mechanisms that purely sociological approaches might miss.

My integrative approach includes historical contextualization, cultural-aesthetic analysis, and theoretical synthesis. This includes archival research of declassified documents, policy records, and reception history. The spectacular artifacts—films, television, video games, extended reality media, and performance—serve as historical records depicting scenarios from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to post-apocalyptic futures that illustrate specific ideological attachments to the nuclear complex. My analysis contributes to aesthetic theory through what I term "spectacle studies," innovatively combining Guy Debord's media theory with anthropologist John MacAloon's performance theory framework. By insisting on spectacle as an analytical framework rather than descriptive category, this project enables critical analysis highlighting political intentions behind nuclear technoscience presentation.

In an era of renewed nuclear anxieties, my research reframes the relationship between public and technoscience, showing how aesthetic strategies shape discourse about technology and nuclear policy. This emphasis on media literacy and interpretation is crucial for better science communication. Through critical interpretation of cultural forms narrating our atomic age, my research attends to the socially symbolic work of music, media, and performance. By studying the nuclear complex's aesthetic strategies, my work demystifies how mediation shapes the relationship between society and technoscience. Thirteen men in 1945 demanded a spectacle, and their aesthetic choice determined how the world would enter the atomic age—my work reveals how that choice continues shaping our present moment.