By Caroline Giles Banks
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
In 1947, when time was kept in a pocket or worn on the wrist, the artist Martyl Langsdorf was tasked by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to visually represent the idea of time running out to avert nuclear disaster. She sketched the round face of a clock not unlike those mounted on kitchen walls or placed on mantles. Using artistic license in her drawing of the clock, Martyl set the hour hand close to twelve and the minute hand at seven minutes to the hour. She chose this placement of the hands because, “it looked good to my eye.”
In January 2023, influenced by the the war in Ukraine, home of Chernobyl and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset the “Doomsday Clock” to 90 seconds before midnight.
Which of these arts—language or martial, liberal or fine—will they draw on next?
Earth’s eruptions classified|
active, dormant, extinct—
how simple!
Drifting Sands Haibun #22 (July 2023)
For current information on Chernobyl see “International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day” Geneva Environment Network.