For Want of a Nail
by Amy Franceschini and Michael Swaine (Futurefarmers)
For Want of a Nail engages New Mexico's complex nuclear history as it relates to land use, resource extraction and the breadth of decisions that were made within the Manhattan Project. Two inter-office memoranda found at the Los Alamos Historical Museum guide the process and form. Sent from the office of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer (lead physicist of the Manhattan Project) office in 1943, these memoranda describe a table for his office and a nail to hang his hat. The persistence and specificity of a request for a nail for Mr. Oppenheimer's hat (mentioned in both memoranda) inspired Futurefarmers to hesitate in this peculiar moment—to make, by hand, this nail.
