Glacial Hauntologies is an interdisciplinary collaboration between early-career scientists from the International Thwaites Glacier Consortium (ITGC) - Elizbeth Case and Andrew Hoffman - and two New England-based environmental artists - Hannah Mode and Tyler Rai.
Interweaving glaciology with artistic practice, we translate, subvert, and repurpose tools from many disciplines to explore geophysical data and glaciological archives. On Thwaites Glacier - one of West Antarctica’s vulnerable outlet glaciers - scientists record radar, seismic, magnetotelluric, and gravity data about the ice and bed. In New England, on the bed of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, we look up through the spectre of ice that last covered the landscape 10-18,000 years ago. We are interested in how ice - past ice, current melt, and future glacial disappearances - reoccurs as a persistent hauntology across 21st century landscapes, scientific data, and day-to-day life.
Working across print, sound, textile, movement, and math, our work confronts male-dominated, colonial histories of Antarctic research by centering expansive, embodied, collaborative practices that create alternative relationships to, histories of, and ways of doing research about glacial change. This work includes recordings of dripping meltwater overlayed with sonified seismic data, large-scale, sewn cyanotype fabric collages, zines of body outlines for recording deep field experiences, and other multimedia work.
We are funded by NSF OPP #1738934.
Contact
If you want to get in touch about our work, collaborations, synergies, future projects, ideas, similar projects, funding, or anything else please email us at glacialhauntologies[@]gmail.com.