On July 16, 1945 at 05:29:45 local time (Mountain War Time), a team of scientists reached the culmination of the Manhattan Project, the first test of a nuclear weapon. The event was code-named "Trinity".

On July 16, 2005 at 05:29:45 local time we will commemorate the 60-year anniversary of Trinity by simulating the look and feel of the detonation of a nuclear device. To do this, we are building what is possibly the world's largest flame creating machine.

In the 60 years since that world-changing moment that was the Trinity detonation, the Bomb has permeated the collective consciousness, shaped generations, economies, and nations, and within the last decade almost completely disappeared. Children today barely know the fears of the nuclear age.

Through careful pre-simulation staging and close proximity to the simulation itself, we will create a somber memorial, a reminder to modern society of the grim destructive power that looms over everyday life. The fireball we are creating is a symbol - an awakening call to the persistent threat of nuclear destruction. This simulation is not a celebration, nor a glorification of big fire, or of the destructive power of nuclear weapons.

The Simnuke Project seeks to illustrate the needless threat of such limitless, destructive energy in the hope that no one will ever again experience the devastation of the real thing.

A gallery show in San Francisco will accompany this event in the desert, allowing artists working in a variety of mediums to delve into the implications of atomic weapons that have pervaded our lives for the last 60 years. Additionally, we will plant 60 trees as a lasting and healing memorial grove.