Chornobyl and Fukushima Visual Archives: Visitors’ Practices of Curatorship of the Nuclear Accident Sites

From the perspective of visitors, the significance of the two radioactive exclusion zones—Chornobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan—is often not well understood. This presentation aims to explore the similarities and differences in how visitors visually depict these nuclear accident sites through a comparative study focused on these two contaminated exclusion zones, specifically Chornobyl and Fukushima, analyzed through the lens of visual culture. Using qualitative interviews and photographs taken by visitors at both sites, my research investigates the cultural experiences surrounding nuclear power. It examines how individuals interpret and derive meaning from radioactive landscapes. I focus on how these experiences are translated into visual storytelling and the specific semiotic resources that visitors utilize in their photographs to express their presence in environments altered by radioactive contamination. This approach sheds light on how visitors frame nuclear objects visually and how these practices contribute to the material-discursive legacy of nuclear cultural heritage. Analyzing visitors' visual interactions with the material resources in these two radioactive zones reveals their evolving pictorial interests in the context of participatory digital visual culture. The study provides insights into participatory culture as a transformative force that shapes perceptions and experiences of contaminated sites. Furthermore, this presentation aims to illuminate the public's role in the interpretive processes of the nuclear Anthropocene and highlights their function as contemporary creators of digital nuclear archives.