Joe
Pettet
Smith

The way we imagine the future drastically changed at the end of the 20th Century. Ideas of infinite technological and industrial progress were replaced with pessimistic visions of environmental catastrophe. The heightened sense of unease that has come to define our times has crept into all aspects of popular culture. 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 become blurred; 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 neighbourhood, theatre productions inspired by the environmental crisis. The creators of these simulations go to great lengths to offer complete immersion, making the experiences as indistinguishable from the real thing as possible. These are spaces of rehearsal for paying participants to experience the end of the world as we know it, before returning to the relative safety and security of their everyday lives. Although each is created for recreational purposes their increasing popularity says something about this moment in contemporary society; a time defined by eco-anxiety, infodemics, media-induced paranoia and fake news.

Project coming soon. To read the extended statement click here. Email to request pre-release PDF. 

"Joe Pettet-Smith documents civilians participating in fake scenarios which enable them to role-play survival tactics in a fictional future. This collision of real-world anxiety and entertainment is powerful and symbolises our primal desire to survive in a time of imminent undoing." Gem Fletcher, Creative Review

"Combining a captivating aesthetic with the use of sharp, coherent narration, Joe Pettet-Smith deploys strategies and terminology adopted from cinema, TV and literature to transform common scenarios into dystopian visions." Salvatore Vitale, Source Magazine