-
This is the closest we have been to a man-made global catastrophe. That is according to the Doomsday Clock. The research group who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project have since produced an annual report assessing the risks to contemporary civilisation. The heightened sense of unease that has come to define our times has crept into all aspects of popular culture, from literature to live-action experiences, video games to cinema. Reality feeds into the narratives of fiction, and in turn imagery from science-fiction is increasingly used as shorthand to make sense of real world situations. The borders between real-world anxieties and entertainment have been blurred and combined. It is as if we are choosing to stay on the edge of our seats, to be prepared emotionally and psychologically for something looming on the horizon.
In Preparations for the Worst-Case Scenario, Joe Pettet-Smith photographs sites and ephemera related to this growing phenomenon; a doomsday bunker styled escape room, a shopping mall used for zombie survival experiences, a Hollywood film set of a destroyed suburban neighborhood, theatre productions inspired by the environmental crisis. The creators of these simulations go to great lengths to offer complete and total immersion, making the experiences as indistinguishable from the real thing as possible. For a short period, paying participants live out what it might be like to live after the end of the world as we know it, before returning to the relative safety and security of their everyday lives. Each has been created for recreational purposes but their increasing popularity says something about this moment in contemporary society; a time defined by eco-anxiety, infodemics, media-induced paranoia and fake news.
This project is still in development. Email to request current working PDF.
-
![]()
