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

ISAC Members Program

In conjunction with the ISAC Museum special exhibition Megiddo: A City Unearthed, A Past Imagined, (on view through March 15, 2026) join us for a cross-disciplinary conversation on how complex archaeological, artistic, and scientific ideas are translated into compelling narratives and images for the media and wider public.

The discussion will center on press coverage of ISAC’s excavations at Megiddo (1925–1939), long imagined as the site of biblical Armageddon; Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson’s film Song for Armageddon (2017), 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. Drawing on these three projects, the speakers will 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:

• Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, British artists and creators of the film Song for Armageddon.
• 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.
• Kiersten Neumann, Curator, ISAC Museum, and curator of Megiddo: A City Unearthed, A Past Imagined.

Visit the exhibition webpage: https://isac.uchicago.edu/megiddoimagined

Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson’s professional page: https://www.croweandrawlinson.net

Daniel Holz’s professional page: https://holzlab.uchicago.edu

** This program is limited to registered ISAC Members. Only ISAC members will receive the Zoom link, which will be circulated two hours prior to the program. Not yet a member? Become one today!