Apocalyptic drift is a reference to the relation between apocalyptic thought and representation in the 21st century. It is not the event but rather an atmosphere: a continual pulling of the present into the past and future towards unraveling. It is the slow motion of collapse, a horizon that recedes as we approach, where memory, crisis, and hope entangle in the lingering atmosphere of perpetual ending. Apocalyptic drift names the condition in which the end is never singular but ongoing, a slow bleed of crises across time. It reframes apocalypse not as rupture but as lived persistence, shaped by the legacies of late-stage capitalism and the Cold War in the age of climate anxiety tracked by cultural narratives of collapse and survival. Yet, if apocalypse lingers, so too does possibility. Within the slow unraveling, there are seams where new worlds might be dreamt. Drift unsettles closure; it keeps alive the chance for reimagining life amid the ruin.

Image: Puerto Peñasco, March ’23. Photograph: David J. Cross, ©2025, original 3:2 ratio.