Bit Depth, Episode 1: Nuclear Set

Friday, October 24, 7 pm

$15 General / Free for Squeaky Wheel members

Squeaky Wheel invites you to the first episode of Bit Depth, a new critical Squeaky variety show and event series! In Episode 1, Nuclear Set, we will be featuring artist talks, films, and music focusing on nuclear harm and anxieties, tying in to our current exhibition Radiation Borders. The event will feature exhibition artist Elizabeth Tannie Lewin in conversation with former resident Dana Murray Tyrrell (both former Workspace Residents in 2017), a performance by the luminous cellist Katie Weissmann, a screening of Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s And still, it remains (2023 Best Experimental Film, Blackstar Film Festival), the short film sound of a million insects, light of a thousand stars in memory of the recently deceased filmmaker Tomonari Nishikawa, and the 1953 3D “documentary” Doom Town. All of this accompanied by a delicious Mediterranean spread (including vegan and gluten free options) by celebrated chef Kevin Thurston. Join us!

Bit Depth is Squeaky’s take on the Buffalo arts variety show. Each “episode” will feature a mix of films, artists, hackers, magicians, scientists, performances, mini-workshops, scholars and more, accompanied by a special spread of food by local celebrity chefs. Inspired in equal part by events such as Just Buffalo’s Big Night, Hallwalls’ Art+Science Cabaret, and Arika’s Episodes, Bit Depth are one-of-a-kind evenings featuring luminaries and rarities from Buffalo and beyond in critical and joyous engagement with media art in all that it can entail.

This event is supported by Teiger Foundation. Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s And still, it remains is courtesy of LUX (London, UK). Tomonari Nishikawa’s sound of a million insects, light of a thousand stars is courtesy of Canyon Cinema (San Francisco, CA). Doom Town is courtesy of the 3D Film Archive. Special thank you to Flicker Alley.

Attendees: Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor, and head left.  Click here to see parking, transportation, and accessibility information. Food will feature vegetarian and gluten free options. The program will be in three parts, with short breaks in between. Members can email office@squeaky.org with the subject “Bit Depth” and we’ll reserve their spot within 24 hours. Not a member? Annual rates start at just $30 – sign up here.

Films

Tomonari Nishikawa, sound of a million insects, light of a thousand stars
2 minutes, 35 mm on digital video, Japan/USA, 2014

I buried a 100-foot 35mm negative film under fallen leaves alongside a country road, which was about 25 km away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, from the sunset of June 24, 2014, to the sunrise of the following day. The night was beautiful with a starry sky, and numerous summer insects were singing loud. The area was once an evacuation zone, but now people live there after the removal of the contaminated soil. – Tomonari Nishikawa

This project is made possible with funds from the Media Arts Assistance Fund, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, Electronic Media and Film, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; administered by Wave Farm.

Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, And still, it remains
28 mins, 4K Video, Algeria/UK, 2023

And still, it remains is a new film by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah which carries forward their long-term dedication to exploring race and environmental legacies of colonialism. In this work, they examine the ongoing impact of French toxic colonialism in Mertoutek, a village nestled in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria’s Southern Sahara and a home to the Escamaran community of Black Algerians. Used as a testing ground for nuclear bombs by the French between 1961 and 1966, the area continues to suffer the consequences of radioactive fallout circulating in the water and soil.

The film examines Mertoutek’s encounter with French nuclear colonialism without restricting the region’s history to a narrow colonial temporality. Juxtaposed with slow meditative shots of the mountains, Escamaran ways of life and ancient rock art, experiences of French nuclear experiments, faith and spirituality are narrated by the voices of multiple residents. Summoning the landscape as a witness and protagonist, And still, it remains reflects on the deep inscription of colonial violence into the landscape’s body and ecology. It also pushes against forms of visual capture that reproduce a colonial gaze while challenging visibility as the currency for political redress. Winds migrating across the Sahara have recently carried sand containing nuclear remains from the Algerian Sahara back to France, serving as a reminder that the environmental afterlives of colonialism cannot be contained or forgotten.

By focussing on the experiences of Mertoutek residents, Aburawa and Shah throw into sharp relief the racial oversight in the ‘end of the world’ discourse by asking what worlds have already ended and what does a life after the end of the world look like? What does intimacy with toxic colonialism afford its survivors and how does it shape their ideas around justice? How does one recover from ongoing violence and how, ultimately, do you carry on?

Doom Town
18 min, Dunning 3D process presented on anaglyphic 3D, USA, 1953
Directed by Allan Milner. Screenplay by Gerald Schnitzer. Produced by Lee Savin. 2003 recreation by Peter Kuran and Greg Kintz.

The first 3-D documentary, Doom Town was made by independent producer Lee Savin, who was intrigued by the atomic-bomb tests at Yucca Flats in Nevada. Filming began March 17, 1953. Photographed with the Dunning Three-Dimensional Process, it captured the devastating effects of an atomic blast.

Doom Town was written by screenwriter-director-author Gerald Schnitzer, whose credits included scripts for Bela Lugosi (The Corpse Vanishes, Bowery at Midnight) and The Bowery Boys. Schnitzer also created several acclaimed TV commercials for Kodak (“Kodak Moment”), Chevrolet, and Clairol.

Doom Town was sneak-previewed on April 30 at the Paramount Theaterin Hollywood and opened ni Los Angeles on July 2 with The Maze and Lippert’s 3-D short, College Capers. The next day it opened at the Telenews theaters ni San Francisco and Oakland. After these bookings, it was mysteriously pulled from circulation. Although the project was approved by proper channels, the anti-atomic testing stance was hardly a message the government wanted to promote. Was Doom Town suppressed? Nobody seems to know but the movie disappeared without a trace in July 1953.

It was lost for decades until the negatives, slated to be junked, were discovered and salvaged by the 3-D Film Archive in 1985. The separate reel with the color atomic bomb shots was missing; a recreation was done in 2003 by Peter Kuran, using actual 3D- atomic bomb footage. The original “multi-sound” has been recreated by Greg Kintz.

Years ahead of its time, Doom Town is a prescient social statement and an excellent example of 3-D filmmaking. – Ted Okuda, 3-D Rarities, Blu-Ray published by Flicker Alley, 2015

Artist talk with Elizabeth Tannie Lewin with Dana Murray Tyrrell

Visiting artist Elizabeth Tannie Lewin will be speaking with Dana Murray Tyrrell about her work in our exhibition Radiation Borders, and which names the first episode of Bit Depth: Nuclear Set. Nuclear Set interweaves Jorge Luis Borges’s Library of Babel, poetry by Maquis, Rene Char, the journals of Italian Futurist, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, historical footage of the United States’ nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, and a 3D video game landscape of Bikini Atoll to speculate a future that will survive our extinction. This artist talk reunites the two artists who were both part of Squeaky Wheel’s Workspace Residency program in 2018, and both of whom have significantly investigated the legacies of nuclear toxicity and harm in their work.

Performance by Katie Weissman

Katie Weissman began playing the cello at the age of three at Buffalo Suzuki Strings after seeing Yo-Yo Ma appear on Sesame Street and holds a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Boston University. When at home in Buffalo, Katie is a cellist and vocalist in the contemporary music ensemble Wooden Cities and is a substitute for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shea’s Performing Arts Center. She also plays with the composition think-tank Evolution of the Arm, free jazz group Root Cellar, folk-rock bands Haunted Continents and Birddog, and various other chamber music outfits in the Western New York area. She has toured at home and abroad and has lent her playing to many recording projects in the studio, including multiple albums and stage performances by Buffalo’s own Goo Goo Dolls. She teaches privately in her own studio and currently lives in Williamsville with her dogs, rabbits, and birds.

Menu by Kevin Thurston

The menu prepared and selected by artist and chef Kevin Thurston will include glutenfree and vegan options, including:

• Turkey meatballs, cinnamon scented tomato sauce
• Muhammara (vegan/gf) + pita
• Creamy cucumbers (gf)
• Pickle tray from Barrel + Brine (vegan/gf)
• Assorted sweets from Arabic Sweets
• and more!

Biographies of the artists, filmmakers, and chef

Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah are a directing duo dedicated to exploring race, migration, the environment and other ongoing legacies of colonialism through film. Together they also co-founded Other Cinemas, a project dedicated to supporting Black and non-white communities in London through free film screenings and a free, year-long film school.

Dana Murray Tyrrell is an artist, curator, and writer from Niagara Falls, New York. His artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Castellani Art Museum, Roger Tory Peterson Institute, University at Buffalo Department of Art, and the Pride Center of Western New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Love Canal at the Earl W. Brydges Library (2024-25), Floater at Kingfish Gallery (2021), and Blue at the Castellani Art Museum (2017). Select group exhibits include Black Rock Arts (2025), the Burchfield Penney Art Center (2023, 2021), and ECHO Art Fair (2016). He currently works at the Burchfield Penney with past roles at Rivalry Projects, the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center, and former Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Tannie Lewin is a digital media artist interested in: technology, landscape, identity, disappearance, history, and utopia.

Katie Weissman began playing the cello at the age of three at Buffalo Suzuki Strings after seeing Yo-Yo Ma appear on Sesame Street and holds a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Boston University. When at home in Buffalo, Katie is a cellist and vocalist in the contemporary music ensemble Wooden Cities and is a substitute for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Shea’s Performing Arts Center. She also plays with the composition think-tank Evolution of the Arm, free jazz group Root Cellar, folk-rock bands Haunted Continents and Birddog, and various other chamber music outfits in the Western New York area. She has toured at home and abroad and has lent her playing to many recording projects in the studio, including multiple albums and stage performances by Buffalo’s own Goo Goo Dolls. She teaches privately in her own studio and currently lives in Williamsville with her dogs, rabbits, and birds.

Kevin Thurston is the Chef and General Manager of Tipico Coffee. Prior to that, he co-owned Cafe Godot. In addition to his culinary work, he wrote Color Me White (BlazeVox) which was illustrated by Mickey Harmon and has numerous publication credits. He has performed with the ensemble BuffFluxus for over 20 years. He lives with his wife and daughter in a Polish workman’s cottage on the outskirts of Buffalo.

Tomonari Nishikawa’s (1969-2025) films explore the idea of documenting situations/phenomena through chosen medium and techniques, often focusing on the process of art making. His films have been screened at numerous film festivals and art venues, including Berlinale, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, London Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Media City Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival. In 2010, he showed a series of 8mm and 16mm films at MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and his film installation, Building 945, received the 2008 Grant from the Museum of Contemporary Cinema in Spain. He taught in the Cinema Department at Binghamton University.