Split-Flap Smoke, Challenger STS-51-L, 28 January 1985 (2005)

Split-Flap Smoke

Split-Flap Smoke presents a series of historical events defined by a transitory thing: smoke. The press-image of a plume emanating from something destroyed has served as a marker that resists resolution into a simple sound-bite or headline.

Cycling through at brief intervals, the split-flap display board gives one example after another of these signature events. The images’ persistence in the media coupled with the mechanical reproduction and the coarse pixilation continue a question of comprehension or legibility.

2005