Doomsday Clock Symposium

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’  5th Annual Doomsday Clock Symposium, in collaboration with the Hirshhorn and its exhibition Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950, will focus on representations of catastrophe and how images are used to communicate the dangers of nuclear weapons and of climate disruption. The purpose of the day-long conference is to explore the aesthetics and politics of representation and to understand how viewers respond to portrayals of utter disaster from nuclear destruction and climate change. The symposium also will elaborate the dangers behind the images and, by bringing together the art and science of devastation, inform the public about catastrophic threats from nuclear technologies and from the damaging forces of climate change.

Hirshhorn interim director Kerry Brougher delivers the opening keynote address at 9:15 am.

In conjunction with the Symposium, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will devote its November/December issue to this theme.