In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker: Affect, Materiality and Meaning Making

280 Pages·2017·4.99 MB·English

by  Luke Bennett (editor)

In the Ruins of the
Cold War Bunker
Place, Memory, Affect
Series editors: Neil Campbell, Professor of American Studies at the Univer-
sity of Derby and Christine Berberich, School of Social, Historical and Liter-
ary Studies at the University of Portsmouth.
The Place, Memory, Affect series seeks to extend and deepen debates around
the intersections of place, memory, and affect in innovative and challeng-
ing ways. The series will forge an agenda for new approaches to the edgy
relations of people and place within the transnational global cultures of the
twenty-first century and beyond.
Walking Inside Out edited by Tina Richardson
The Last Isle: Contemporary Taiwan Film, Culture,
and Trauma by Sheng-mei Ma
Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders: Re-Unified Germany
After 1989 by Ben Gook
The Mother’s Day Protest and Other Fictocritical Essays
by Stephen Muecke
Affective Critical Regionality by Neil Campbell
Visual Arts Practice and Affect edited by Ann Schilo
Haunted Landscapes edited by Ruth Heholt and Niamh Downing
In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker edited by Luke Bennett
The Question of Space: Interrogating the Spatial Turn Between Disciplines
edited by Marijn Nieuwenhuis and David Crouch (forthcoming)
Nature, Place and Affect: The Poetic Affinities of Edward Thomas
and Robert Frost 1912–1917 by Anna Stenning (forthcoming)
In the Ruins of the
Cold War Bunker
Affect, Materiality
and Meaning Making
Edited by Luke Bennett
London• NewYork
Published by Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd
Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26–34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB
www.rowmaninternational.com
Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd. is an affiliate of Rowman & Littlefield
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706, USA
With additional offices in Boulder, New York, Toronto (Canada), and Plymouth (UK)
www.rowman.com
Copyright © 2017 Selections and Editorial Matter Luke Bennett
Copyright in individual chapters is held by the respective chapter authors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB 978-1-7834-8733-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bennett, Luke, editor of compilation.
Title: In the ruins of the Cold War bunker : affect, materiality and meaning making /
edited by Luke Bennett.
Description: London ; New York : Rowman & Littlefield International, Ltd.,
2017. | Series: Place, memory, affect | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017016051 (print) | LCCN 2017022222 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781783487356 (electronic) | ISBN 9781783487332 (cloth : alkaline paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Cold War—Social aspects. | Bunkers (Fortification) | Historic
buildings. | Abandoned buildings. | Memory—Social aspects. | Totemism—Social
aspects. | Material culture—Social aspects. | Affect (Psychology)—Social aspects. |
Military archaeology. | Landscape archaeology.
Classification: LCC D842 (ebook) | LCC D842 .I45 2017 (print) | DDC
363.3509/045—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016051
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Figures and Table vii
Acknowledgements xi
PART I: I NTRODUCING THE BUNKER: RUINS,
HUNTERS AND MOTIVES 1
1 Approaching the Bunker: Exploring the Cold War
through Its Ruins 3
Luke Bennett
2 Entering the Bunker with Paul Virilio: The Atlantic Wall,
Pure War and Trauma 23
Luke Bennett
PART II: L OOKING AT THE BUNKER:
REPRESENTATION, IMAGE AND AFFECT 39
3 Peripheral Artefacts: Drawing [Out] the Cold War 41
Stephen Felmingham
4 Sublime Concrete: The Fantasy Bunker, Explored 57
Kathrine Sandys
5 Processual Engagements: Sebaldian Pilgrimages
to Orford Ness 75
Louise K. Wilson
v
vi Contents
PART III: EMBRACING THE BUNKER: IDENTITY,
MATERIALITY AND MEMORY 95
6 Torås Fort: A Speculative Study of War Architecture
in the Landscape 97
Matthew Flintham
7 Bunker and Cave Counterpoint: Exploring Underground Cold
War Landscapes in Greenbrier County, West Virginia 113
María Alejandra Pérez
8 Recuperative Materialities: The Kinmen Tunnel Music Festival 131
J. J. Zhang
9 Once upon a Time in Ksamil: Communist and Post-Communist
Biographies of Mushroom-Shaped Bunkers in Albania 145
Emily Glass
PART IV: D EALING WITH THE BUNKER: HUNTING,
VISITING AND RE-MAKING 165
10 Popular Historical Geographies of the Cold War: Hunting,
Recording and Playing with Small Munitions Bunkers in Germany 167
Gunnar Maus
11 ‘A Nice Day Out?’: Exploring Heritage (and) Tourism
Discourses at Cold War Bunker Sites in Britain 185
Inge Hermann
12 Preserving and Managing York Cold War Bunker: Authenticity,
Curation and the Visitor Experience 201
Rachael Bowers and Kevin Booth
13 Atoombunker Arnhem: An Architect’s New Uses for Old Bunkers 215
Arno Geesink
PART V: CONCLUSION 231
14 Presencing the Bunker: Past, Present and Future 233
Luke Bennett
Index 251
Contributors 265
Figures and Table
FIGURES
1.1. The Boy and the Bunker (2009). Reproduced by kind
permission of Luke Bennett. 4
3.1. Transition 3 (2012). Charcoal on Fabriano 5 paper,
1.2 m × 1.5 m. Reproduced by kind permission
of Stephen Felmingham. 51
3.2. (Left to right) Peripheral Artefact #7 and Peripheral
Artefact #8 (both 2010). Both charcoal and chalk on plaster
with lead, 70 cm in diameter. 2013. Reproduced by kind
permission of Stephen Felmingham. 52
4.1. Hush House (2010). Reproduced by kind permission of
Kathrine Sandys. 63
4.2. Radioflash (2009). Reproduced by kind permission of
Kathrine Sandys. 68
5.1. Cobra Mist (2008) (frame capture showing Orford Ness’s
‘pagodas’). Reproduced by kind permission
of Emily Richardson. 85
5.2. Untitled Landscape (2014). Reproduced by kind permission
of Anya Gallaccio. 87
6.1. Torås Kommandoplasse (2010) (frame capture from
Lehmann’s footage of Torås). Digital video. Reproduced by
kind permission of Matthew Flintham. 98
vii
viii Figures and Table
6.2. Torås Kommandoplasse (2010) (four frame captures from
Lehmann’s footage of Torås). Digital video. Reproduced by
kind permission of Matthew Flintham. 101
7.1. Counterpoint: Greenbrier Bunker’s Door and Organ Cave
Shelter’s Shack (2015). Reproduced by kind permission of
María Alejandra Pérez. 126
8.1. Location of Kinmen (2017). Reproduced by kind permission
of J. J. Zhang. 132
8.2. The Zhaishan Tunnel (2008). Reproduced by kind
permission of J. J. Zhang. 136
9.1. Early Mushroom-Shaped Bunker Positioned Overlooking
the Sea Border with Corfu (2010). Reproduced by kind
permission of Emily Glass. 149
9.2. Ksamil’s Front-Line Painted Mushroom-Shaped Bunkers
Exposed by Beach Terracing (2012). Reproduced by kind
permission of Emily Glass. 156
10.1. Deep in the Forest: Sperrmittelhaus in the Vicinity of Bad
Oldesloe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (2013).
Reproduced by kind permission of Gunnar Maus. 170
11.1. Open to All, Appealing to All: Hack Green Bunker (2009).
Reproduced by kind permission of Luke Bennett. 187
12.1. ROC 20 Group Bunker and Its Surroundings (2015).
Reproduced by kind permission of Luke Bennett. 202
12.2. The Mundane Paraphernalia of Nuclear War: Inside York
Bunker (2015). Reproduced by kind permission
of Luke Bennett. 207
13.1. Discovering the Atoombunker (2012). Reproduced by kind
permission of Arno Geesink. 221
13.2. The Present and Future of the Atoombunker (2012).
Reproduced by kind permission of Arno Geesink. 223
14.1. The Last Man, and the Ruins: The Greenham Common’s
Cruise Missile Bunkers (2008). Reproduced by kind
permission of Matthew Flintham. 246
Figures and Table ix
TABLE
10.1. Projects and corresponding arrangements that become a
context for the bunkers through performance. Reproduced
by kind permission of Gunnar Maus. 179