The newly-coined term ‘ruin porn’ provokes both obsession and criticism; signalling the eventual decay to which we will all invariably succumb, contemporary ruins inspire fascination and fear, a furious denial of our collective immortality and a wary flirtation with death. Contemporary ruins such as those found in Detroit and Chernobyl attract thousands of ‘ruin tourists’ or ‘ruin photographers’, many of whom attempt to engage on a meaningful level with the existential threat that these sights arouse. The terrifying beauty that we associate with contemporary ruins appears to be a modern symptom of the post-natural, architectural sublime. 

In lieu of ‘ruin porn’, which tends to focus solely on the aesthetic pleasure with which such sites are associated, Kate Brown talks of the concept of ‘rustalgia’ in her book Dispatches from Dystopia: Histories of Places Not Yet Forgotten (2014). For Brown, while some people speak of their ‘lustful’ attraction to such sites, ‘others will speak in mournful tones of what is lost, what I call rustalgia.’

Modern ruins are fascinating to us because they prompt interrogation into our place in the overarching narrative of history and utterly re-configure ordinary conceptions of time. As Tong Lam argues in his photographic work Abandoned Futures: A Journey to the Posthuman World (2013), ‘in a way, we are already post-apocalyptic’.

How might we respond to the growing interest in contemporary ruins, and how does the term ruin porn strengthen or undermine this development? What does an obsession with ruin culture suggest about contemporary society, especially with the parallel emergence of anthropocentric discourse?

This essay collection seeks to produce a dialogue on ruin, ruin porn, and contemporary decay. Abstracts are invited on topics on, but not limited to:         

  • Ruins and catastrophe (environmental, economic, etc.)
  • Ruin photography and ruin photographers
  • Ruins and ecocriticsm
  • Ruins and the anthropocene 
  • ‘Ruin Porn’ and the problems with the term
  • Ruins, nostalgia, and solastalgia
  • Ruins, beauty, and the architectural sublime
  • Ruins and the conception of time, history and progress
  • Ruins and war
  • Artistic and fictional depictions of decay
  • Abandoned cities and economic downturn

Interested authors should send abstracts of 350-500 words to siobhan.lyons[at]mq.edu.au. Essays of approximately 5,000 words will be due in 2017. Palgrave has expressed an interest in the project.