97. Richard Nixon Hoped to Never Say These Words about Apollo 11. In A New Exhibit, He Does‪.‬ Museum Archipelago

As the Apollo 11 astronauts hurtled towards the moon on July 18th, 1969, members of the Nixon administration realized they should probably make a contingency plan. If the astronauts didn’t make it – or, even more horrible, if they made it to the moon and crashed and had no way to get back to earth – Richard Nixon would have to address the nation. That haunting speech was written but fortunately was never delivered.


But you can go to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City and watch Nixon somberly reciting those words. It looks like real historic footage, but it’s fake. Artists Francesca Panetta and Halsey Burgund used the text of the original address and media manipulation techniques like machine learning to create the synthetic Nixon for a film called In Event of Moon Disaster. It anchors an exhibit called Deepfake: Unstable Evidence on Screen.


In this episode, Panetta and Burgund discuss how they created In Event of Moon Disaster as a way to highlight various misinformation techniques, the changing literacy of the general public towards media manipulation, and the effectiveness of misinformation in the museum medium.


Topics and Notes


00:00 Intro
00:15 July 18th, 1969
00:40 The Safire Memo
01:38 Clip From In Event of Moon Disaster
02:30 Nixon’s Telephone Call
03:00 What is Deepfake?
03:30 Halsey Burgund
04:06 Francesca Panetta
04:30 How They Did It
04:50 Why This Speech?
06:02 Deepfake: Unstable Evidence on Screen at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City
07:05 Misinformation By Editing
09:53 Misinformation and Medium
10:23 Museums as Trustworthy Institutions
11:27 What Would a “Deepfake Museum Gallery” Look Like?
13:43 In Event of Moon Disaster
14:00 Outro | Join Club Archipelago 🏖


Museum Archipelago is a tiny show guiding you through the rocky landscape of museums. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or even email to never miss an episode.



Support Museum Archipelago🏖️


Club Archipelago offers exclusive access to Museum Archipelago extras. It’s also a great way to support the show directly.

Join the Club for just $2/month.

Your Club Archipelago membership includes:
Access to a private podcast that guides you further behind the scenes of museums. Hear interviews, observations, and reviews that don’t make it into the main show;
Archipelago at the Movies 🎟️, a bonus bad-movie podcast exclusively featuring movies that take place at museums;
Logo stickers, pins and other extras, mailed straight to your door;
A warm feeling knowing you’re supporting the podcast.










Transcript
Below is a transcript of Museum Archipelago episode 97. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, refer to the links above.




View Transcript




Welcome to Museum Archipelago. I'm Ian Elsner. Museum Archipelago guides you through the rocky landscape of museums. Each episode is never longer than 15 minutes, so let's get started.


On July 18th, 1969, members of the Nixon administration realized they should probably make a contingency plan. If the Apollo 11 astronauts who were hurtling towards the moon, on their way to be the first humans to land on its surface, didn’t make it to the moon – or, even more horrible, if they made it to the moon and crashed and had no way to get back to earth – Nixon would have to address the nation.


So Nixon’s speech writer, William Safire wrote an address titled “In Event of Moon Disaster.” It’s a short, haunting speech – the first time that billions of people on earth would learn about the failed Apollo 11 mission. Safire notes that before delivering the speech, Nixon “should telephone each of the widows-to-be.” Widows-to-be because Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin wouldn’t be dead yet, just stranded on the moon with no hope of recovery.



Halsey Burgund: The astronauts are still alive. I mean that – every time I even th