Translating the End of Times: Art, Science & the Media of Apocalypse

“Translating the End of Times: Art, Science & the Media of Apocalypse” January 22, 2026 In conjunction with the ISAC Museum special exhibition “Megiddo: A City Unearthed, A Past Imagined” (Sep 18, 2025–Mar 15, 2026; https://isac.uchicago.edu/megiddoimagined), this ISAC program features a cross-disciplinary conversation between Kiersten Neumann, Nick Crowe, Ian Rawlinson, and Daniel Holz on how complex archaeological, artistic, and scientific ideas are translated into compelling narratives and images for the media and wider public. The discussion centers on press coverage of ISAC’s excavations at Megiddo (1925–1939), long imagined as the site of biblical Armageddon; the film “Song for Armageddon” (2017; https://www.croweandrawlinson.net/song-for-armageddon), filmed on location at Megiddo and featured in the exhibition; and the Doomsday Clock, housed at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, whose 2026 setting will be announced on January 27 (https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/#nav_menu). Drawing on these three projects, the speakers explore different ways we give form to abstract threats and existential anxieties, shaping how we imagine apocalypse, reckon with “the end,” and envision the possibility of tomorrow. Program Speakers: • Kiersten Neumann, Curator, ISAC Museum, and curator of Megiddo: A City Unearthed, A Past Imagined (https://arthistory.uchicago.edu/faculty/curators/neumann). • Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, British artists and creators of the film Song for Armageddon (https://www.croweandrawlinson.net). • Daniel Holz, Professor, Departments of Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics; Chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (which sets the hands of the Doomsday Clock); Director, UChicago Existential Risk Laboratory (https://holzlab.uchicago.edu).