The City of Los Angeles installed a network of air raid sirens as part of its civil defense system following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into World War II. The network eventually grew to 225 sirens, tested monthly. These sirens were activated only once in response to a false report of enemy aircraft, causing widespread panic, accidents, and three fatalities. During the Cold War, the system was repurposed as a nuclear warning network, but frequent false alarms and electrical deterioration led to its deactivation in 1985. Because removal was considered too costly, the sirens were abandoned in place. Today, approximately 130 remain across Los Angeles.

Copper Siren focuses on Siren #165, located near Bellevue Avenue and Edgeware Road in Echo Park. The project proposes coating the siren and its support structure in copper leaf, sealed with a protective acrylic topcoat. This intervention visually elevates an overlooked piece of infrastructure, inviting public reflection on its historical and symbolic associations with security, preparedness, surveillance, and technology. Over its eighty-year history, our relationship to these ideas have evolved, splintered, and warped, and will continue to change over the decades to come.