Half-Life. 498 (KZ&UK)
[p]! This event is not related to our game Critical Shift ![/p][p]Rhinotales was honored to support and partially fund the sound performance in the city of Karaganda.
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On July 12, a powerful and emotional sound-art performance titled "T 1/2 (Time of Half-Life)" took place in Karaganda, dedicated to the memory of nuclear testing at the Semipalatinsk Test Site.[/p][p]The number 498 refers to the 498 nuclear explosions conducted there between 1949 and 1989 - one of the gravest and least acknowledged human-made disasters of the 20th century. [/p][p]Artists Kamila Narysheva (kz) and Vicki Clarke (uk) created the work after a research trip to the former test site. Kamila expected desolation, but instead found a paradox: contaminated, restricted land coexisting with wild, living nature.
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The piece opens with real sounds from the site a dog barking, snow crunching raw echoes from a haunted landscape.[/p][p]At school, many of us were briefly told about a test site and shown disturbing images.[/p][p]Then we turned the page.[/p][p]Few of us grasped the true scale.[/p][p]Hiroshima and Nagasaki - 2 bombs.[/p][p]Semipalatinsk - 498.
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Some of our own team at Rhinotales have family roots in nearby regions - 80 to 130 km from the epicenter.[/p][p]People were told: “Lie down, cover yourself with a felt carpet (koshma), and when the wind dies down, you can get up.”[/p][p]And they obeyed.
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This is not just a story for those in Semey.[/p][p]It is part of our shared past, our collective responsibility, and a legacy we must acknowledge if we hope to move forward.[/p][p]“While working on this piece, Vicki Clarke hadn’t initially considered the UK’s role. Britain didn’t test on its own land. It tested in Australia far away. But it was involved.”[/p][p]Nuclear tests conducted:[/p][p]UK – 45[/p][p]France – 210[/p][p]China – 45[/p][p]USSR – 715[/p][p]USA – 1,054
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We chose to support this performance not because it's related to our game, but because it took place in our country, and because it speaks to something much deeper.[/p][p]Art can give voice to silence, and remembrance to tragedy.[/p][p]We are grateful to the artists and everyone who attended.
[/p][p]Let us remember and protect what remains.[/p]
[/p][p]
On July 12, a powerful and emotional sound-art performance titled "T 1/2 (Time of Half-Life)" took place in Karaganda, dedicated to the memory of nuclear testing at the Semipalatinsk Test Site.[/p][p]The number 498 refers to the 498 nuclear explosions conducted there between 1949 and 1989 - one of the gravest and least acknowledged human-made disasters of the 20th century. [/p][p]Artists Kamila Narysheva (kz) and Vicki Clarke (uk) created the work after a research trip to the former test site. Kamila expected desolation, but instead found a paradox: contaminated, restricted land coexisting with wild, living nature.
The piece opens with real sounds from the site a dog barking, snow crunching raw echoes from a haunted landscape.[/p][p]At school, many of us were briefly told about a test site and shown disturbing images.[/p][p]Then we turned the page.[/p][p]Few of us grasped the true scale.[/p][p]Hiroshima and Nagasaki - 2 bombs.[/p][p]Semipalatinsk - 498.
Some of our own team at Rhinotales have family roots in nearby regions - 80 to 130 km from the epicenter.[/p][p]People were told: “Lie down, cover yourself with a felt carpet (koshma), and when the wind dies down, you can get up.”[/p][p]And they obeyed.
This is not just a story for those in Semey.[/p][p]It is part of our shared past, our collective responsibility, and a legacy we must acknowledge if we hope to move forward.[/p][p]“While working on this piece, Vicki Clarke hadn’t initially considered the UK’s role. Britain didn’t test on its own land. It tested in Australia far away. But it was involved.”[/p][p]Nuclear tests conducted:[/p][p]UK – 45[/p][p]France – 210[/p][p]China – 45[/p][p]USSR – 715[/p][p]USA – 1,054
We chose to support this performance not because it's related to our game, but because it took place in our country, and because it speaks to something much deeper.[/p][p]Art can give voice to silence, and remembrance to tragedy.[/p][p]We are grateful to the artists and everyone who attended.
[/p][p]Let us remember and protect what remains.[/p]