This stencil design is inspired by the idea of a Doomsday Clock: a symbolic clock invented in 1945 as a countdown to global catastrophe. In theory, the clock can move forward and backward in time, based on the degree of technological and environmental we pose to the planet.
The original clock assessed threats related to nuclear proliferation, but nowadays, factors like climate change are ticking us closer and closer to midnight, our existential vanishing as a human species.
The Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board consists of 17 Nobel Laureates, who meet every year to quantify the remaining time, which today, rests at 4 minutes until midnight. The most recent setting reflects the urgency of climate change, modernization of nuclear weapons in United States and Russia, and the problem of nuclear waste.
As a stencil, I'd envision it being used near historical locations where Berkeley worked in contract with the U.S. Army to develop the atomic bomb. For example, most of the cutting edge research in nuclear physics leading up to the development of the atomic bomb took place at UC labs, including the then secret discovery of plutonium (in Room 307 of Gilman Hall) and the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
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