Media Relations

Animated work of WKU professor part of ‘Secret World of Espionage’ exhibit

Date: Monday, September 10th, 2012

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Animated works of Dr. Keith Sylvester, head of WKU’s Department of Architectural and Manufacturing Sciences, are being used in a five-year traveling exhibit titled SPY: The Secret World of Espionage.

Dr. Keith Sylvester

The exhibit, which opened this summer at Discovery Times Square in New York City, documents historical events of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) in a 12-film series.

Animated works of Dr. Sylvester are being used to visually explain the monumental salvage attempt of a Soviet nuclear submarine by Howard Hughes’s Summa Corporation and Global Marine using Hughes Glomar Explorer—a massive trawler three football fields in length. The ship housed a gigantic salvage rig, nicknamed the Clementine, consisting of cranes, winches, eight immense claws, and a giant sub net.

Animated works of Dr. Keith Sylvester are used to visually explain the monumental salvage attempt of a Soviet nuclear submarine.

As a technological and engineering marvel, the Clementine stood 23 stories high and weighed six million pounds. Its sole purpose was to pluck the 5,000-ton submarine from its ocean mud bed and hoist it 16,000 feet to the surface.

The original work was used in the documentary titled Submarines, Secrets and Spies, produced by WGBH of Boston and aired nationally in 1998 as a part of the popular NOVA series on PBS. Select portions have been incorporated in one of 12 films for the SPY exhibit.

More information about the exhibit can be found online at http://www.baseentertainment.com/show/spy.

Contact: Keith Sylvester, (270) 745-4021.