No Service
[2019]
No Service introduces the latest addition to the National Park system, Timberline National Park.
Whereas Congress has historically established national parks to preserve and make accessible the
sublime - the transcendent quality of the American landscape that overwhelms, defies
comprehension, and induces awe - Timberline National Park is devoted to illuminating those same
qualities of the information age. The sublime of the U.S. surveillance state.
Timberline National Park's focal point and eponym is the National Security Agency's (NSA) covert
interception base in Sugar Grove, West Virginia, code-named TIMBERLINE. TIMBERLINE sits within
the heart of the U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone, a unique geography where electromagnetic
signals are extremely limited or outright banned. Through topographic formation, vegetative IP
scrambling, and procession, this thesis revels in the sublime juxtaposition of a covert
intelligence apparatus intercepting radio transmissions in a landscape devoid of electromagnetic
communication channels, and tackles the urgent issue of grounding and illuminating the
deliberately invisible terrain of mass surveillance.
Photograph of TIMBERLINE NSA listening station, taken from Reddish Knob, VA
Map of U.S. National Park Service Units and timeline of their creation
Visualization of the interconnected web of NSA programs and the content they target
Scalar map series of National Park Service (NPS) units and National Security Agency (NSA) bases; in order: global, national, coastal, regional, site
Planting detail for Pinus anonymous, the NPS Tor Project router to be installed throughout Timberline National Park
Terrain map of electromagnetic bandwidth density across the National Radio Quiet Zone
Processional route from Washington, D.C. to Timberline National Park
Composite viewshed map of the four proposed lookout stations
Grading plans for the four proposed lookout stations
Rendering depicting forest path ascension to Lookout Station 1
Rendering of Lookout Station 1
Poster commemorating the creation of Timberline National Park