“An end can also be a beginning”

So it’s true. Disaster themes pop up everywhere. While discussing a disaster-related poetry chapbook that I hope to be finished with in January, a friend of mine sent me the following link:

The Center for the Study of the End of Things Inaugural Symposium.
Charlottesville, VA. February 5, 2010.

Highlights (excerpts from the “Call for Submissions”):

*The location is a vacant 10,000 ft2 furniture store in Charlottesville, VA. Immediately after the Symposium, the building will be demolished.

*Our curatorial goal is to assemble a coherent body of work that revolves around themes of obsolescence, weathering, and decay, as well as meditations on growth, rebirth, and the utility of discarded materials.

*Drawings, paintings, architectural models, maps, diagrams, written work, found objects, obsolete technological artifacts, photographs, audio or video recordings, sculptures, or other work that relates to the theme will be considered for inclusion. We are also seeking musicians and sound artists to hold appropriate live performances during the Symposium.

*Our view of The End of Things is intentionally broad. It could refer to a cultural, political, material, theological, geographic, technological, or environmental end. The end can be global or microscopic, nihilistic or optimistic. And keep in mind that an end can also be a beginning.