Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
Klara and the Bomb
  • Crystal Bennes (US)

Regular
 35
Signed
 40
170 × 230 mm
320 pages
English
Otabind softcover with dust jacket
TEC095
First edition: 750
9789492051820
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection
  • Klara and the Bomb - The Eriskay Connection

Concept, text and photography:
Crystal Bennes

Design:
Carel Fransen

Production:
Jos Morree (Fine Books)

Print:
Wilco Art Books (NL)

Binding:
Patist (NL)

Supported by:
Creative Scotland

Klara and the Bomb is a photographical and historical work that charts connecting threads between the invention of modern computers, the history of nuclear weapons and, in particular, the narratives of the women involved.

While computing technology is ubiquitous today, its militaristic history and colonial connections continue to be underplayed or obscured: the modern computer originates in military-funded nuclear weapons research and development that took place during and after the Second World War. Many of these weapons were later detonated in the Marshall Islands where indigenous communities were coerced into leaving their homes.

These interconnected stories are told through the little-known life of Klara von Neumann, who came to the United States after marrying the noted mathematician John von Neumann. As one of the first computer programmers, Klara’s story highlights the extent to which women were involved in the development of both computing and nuclear weapons from the 1940s onwards. Klara’s life ended tragically: in 1963, her body was found on the beach not far from her California home. Suicide by drowning, the coroner’s report stated.

Artist Crystal Bennes (US) combines fieldwork images with archival research, declassified papers, military propaganda, historical images and an extensive textual narrative to bring these stories to life. Including a conversation with historian of science Peter Galison.

Crystal Bennes is an American artist and writer based in Scotland. Her practice is grounded in long-term projects which foreground archival research, durational fieldwork and material experimentation. Recent bodies of work include a photo essay on an artificial island made of radioactive, industrially-produced fertiliser waste and a weed garden exploring a nineteenth-century myth of accidental plant migration from Italy to Denmark. She recently completed a practice-based PhD on histories of gendered representations of nature in the sciences and feminist critiques of physics.

  • Les rencontres d'Arles Photo-Text Book Award 2023 (shortlist)

“You could view Klara and the Bomb itself as a Monte Carlo simulation, where through a large number of very detailed vignettes you get closer to an understanding of very specific circumstances — the making of nuclear weapons in the US. But in the end, there only are new questions. In the sciences, you would conclude that you need even larger and more detailed simulations. In the arts, you realize that not all things can be fully understood, and that’s a good thing.” (Jörg Colberg)

CPH Mag

“What marks Klara and the Bomb apart from most photo books however is the extent and depths of the texts which also run through it and alongside the visual elements. In these texts, Bennes (who is a double PhD, and it shows) weaves together a rich network of sources, from historians of science and technology to her own research with primary sources from the project. It almost feels like a disservice to call this a photobook, because there is so much more to it.” (Lewis Bush)

c4 Journal

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