In the early hours of July 16, 1945, the United States army detonated an atomic weapon for the first time. Codenamed “Trinity”, this secretive test not only demonstrated the catastrophic power of nuclear bombs (a power suffered one month later in Hiroshima and Nagasaki) but ushered in an age of anxiety – in politics, in warfare, in science and technology, in geopolitical relations, in popular culture – and established a troubled legacy that continues to exact fear, fascination and terror. Fears of nuclear war and images of its most notorious symbol, the “mushroom cloud”, would soon become a staple of political, visual and scientific culture.
The Mushroom Cloud casts a long shadow today as, amidst conflict and uncertainty, fears of nuclear destruction pervade global politics and culture. In January 2025, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set its "Doomsday Clock" (that its measure of a nuclear instigated catastrophe) to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever come, since its inception in 1947, to the presumed end of the world as we know it. Our project therefore revisits this “destroyer of worlds” with an eye on rethinking the past to reimagine the future.
From the human impact in Japan and in locations where subsequent tests took place, the political contexts in which governments and anti-nuclear activists operated (and continue to operate), to the visualisation of nuclear weapons (in film, television, photography, computer generated images and data visualisations) our events reflect on these historical issues and phenomena and their meaning for today.
Join academics, activists, artists and performers in a series of talks, discussions, workshops and performances devoted to rethinking the past in order to reimagine the future.
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
🕒 18:30
📍 Location: Southsea Library, 19-21 Palmerston Road, Southsea.
"89 Seconds to Midnight: Words, Art, Music for Peace" - A night of talks, performances and music.
Full schedule to follow
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
🕒 Arrivals at 09:30
📍 Location: University of Portsmouth, White Swan Building, Studio 1
10:00
Tarek Teba (Associate Professor in Architectural Heritage and Chair of the University of Portsmouth Heritage Hub) and Olly Gruner (Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture, University of Portsmouth), Introduction: “The Mushroom Cloud as Historical Icon: Revisiting Nuclear Histories 80 Years On.”
10:15
Christopher Hood (Reader in Japanese Studies, University of Cardiff), “Symbolism of the Mushroom Cloud.”
11:00
Break
11:15
Marius Palz (Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Japanese Societies, University of Oxford), “In the Long Shadow of the Mushroom Cloud: Nuclear Weapons in Okinawa.”
11:30
Jenny Walden (Associate Dean Academic, Faculty of Technology, University of Portsmouth) “Art and Destruction-Hiroshima Mon Amour- Inscription, the body, and the 'promise' of justice.”
11:50
Alice Baldock (Okinaga Junior Research Fellow in Japanese Studies, University of Oxford), “Alteration of Alterations: Framing Butoh and the Mushroom Cloud through Dance, Sculpture, and Silence.”
12:30
Lunch
1:15
Robert Poole (Professor of History, University of Central Lancashire), “The Atomic Crossroads: Extinction and Utopia.”
1:45
Jodi Burkett (Senior Lecturer in History, University of Portsmouth), “Peace, Environmentalism and Feminism in the British anti-nuclear movement”
2:30
Break
2:45
Karen McNally (Professor of American Film, Television and Cultural History, London Metropolitan University), “Ask not about Cuba. Ask not about the bomb. We're going to the moon." Fear, Myth and America's Future in Mad Men”
3:30
Break
3:45
Pop Matters Roundtable with Presentations from:
Emma Austin (Senior Lecturer/Course Leader Film Studies, University of Portsmouth), “Cosy Catastrophe/Island Isolationism” British Representations of Nuclear War.
John Caro (Principal Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Portsmouth), “Next time we get our retaliation in first” – 2000 AD, Judge Dredd and Representations of the Cold War in British Comics.”
Lincoln Geraghty (Professor of Media Cultures, University of Portsmouth) "What's Cooking? Mushroom Clouds and Fallout Fandom"
Rebecca Janicker (Associate Professor in Horror Media, University of Portsmouth), "Terrifying Vistas of Reality": Mad Science and the Atom Bomb."
4:45
Break
5:00
Tom Unterrainer (Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation), Talk, Discussion and Q&A.
6:00
Dinner
7:45
Film screening Dr Strangelove (1964) with an Introduction from Peter Kramer (Senior Research Fellow, De Montfort University).
Thursday 17 July
🕒 Arrivals at 09:30
📍 Location: University of Portsmouth, White Swan Building, Studio 1
10:00
Practice research talks/exhibition:
Simone Gumtau (Independent Data Artist and Researcher), “The Nuclear: A Data Perspective.”
Dan McCabe (Course Leader, Visual Communication, Arts University Bournemouth), “Rethinking the Peace Symbol.”
Louis Netter (Course Leader, Character Design and Concept Art, Ravensbourne University), “Atomic Realities: Practice Research and Multiplicity.”
Tom Sykes (Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Global Journalism, University of Portsmouth), “Critical Historical Fiction, The Asian Cold War and the Nuclear Menace in Tangled Saviours: A Novel”
Milena Metalkova-Markova (Associate Professor of Architecture and Conservation, University of Portsmouth), “The Last Nuclear Bomb Design Competition – an architecture response to nuclear legacy and fears.”
11:30
Break
11:45
Creative Workshops with Claire Bailey-Ross, Olly Gruner, Simone Gumtau, Matt Smith (Associate Lecturer in Applied Puppetry, University of Portsmouth), Louis Netter, Kremena Dimitrova (Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Oxford Brookes University) and others.
1:45
Lunch
2:30
Matt Smith and Nik Wakefield (Senior Lecturer in Drama, University of Portsmouth), “Mushrooms - 15 minute performance.”
3:00
Closing remarks
3:15
Ends