microbiomes of the cryosphere and their dark secrets
notes
cryoconite holes: project notes
site elements
cryoconite and cryoconite holes: project overview
get people interested in holes: ice holes
tell a complex story, successive stories, parallel stories
data art; didactic and persuasive intention
use as an example of the complexity of the natural world, the complexity of climate change, the detail and beauty of small unknown systems and the paradox of something small, complete and beautiful being also a symptom of
people think they are entitled to make personal judgements about climate change …
… art largely illustrative … can do more than that
rigour: quantitative as well as meditative
…
structure
introduction to cryoconite and cryoconite holes
climate change
nuclide / radionuclide matter
… aspects of cryoconite holes
visual
striking visually but not unique in nature … sort of opposites of full moon, full solar eclipse, the sun, the pre- space flight never seen earth; … eyes, bubbles
… things made by humans and other animals
but how many cryoconite holes are perfectly circular, or are circular ones disproportionately photographed because glaciologists like the perfect ones … is this a metaphor, people prefer things which appear ordered
at the macroscopic level it is life which gives the appearance of order and perfection, non-living things tend to be messier
people correct fairly circular things in their memories to be more perfectly circular
real time, or simulated, environmental visual demonstration of changes: glacier recession, …
I choose to convey the beauty as opposed to the devastation, in order to empower viewers rather than frighten them. If you can experience the sublimity of these landscapes, perhaps you will be inspired to protect and preserve them.
Zaria Forman, www.artstar.com/collections/zaria-forman
… but if what if a thing which is a symptom of and is a cause of the harm is in itself beautiful? … just as flying to the other side of the world can take you to the beautiful and unusual,, but also help to destroy them … Maldives, Seychelles, other places with round atolls
Rachel Ara
Jill Pelto
Paul Cézanne
Everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone and the cylinder.
… also circle, spiral, disc – disc not necessarily a shallow cylinder, could be lenticular – but you can see his point
project
where are nearest cryoconite holes or cheapest to get to
get very high resolution images of cryoconite holes … simulation of formation
meaning and culture
microcosm of climate change? some benefit, most do not
subtle, nuanced, ambivalent
correspondence between emergence of stable ecosystems in cryoconite holes and first emergence of life on Earth, or wherever it first emerged?
the idea of cryoconite holes as human made writing instruments making invisible radioactive marks of human made …
what did polar people think of these cryoconite holes? weird? useful reindeer and dog drinking holes?
physical and biological
why do some cryoconite deposits, or aggregations, lead to discrete holes? but others observed as surface coatings?
how long for hole to form
how long last
why circular
depth / width proportion
why form at a particular point
why not covering of cryoconite around hole – best image? – is cryoconite around a hole eroded while the cryoconite in a hole, now protected, remains
how large a patch of cryoconite to get a hole started
local variation in life forms in cryoconite holes? silo effect?
variations in size of cryoconite holes
did cryoconite holes exist before anthropogenic atmospheric particles / soot – volcanic dust; how did they differ
assume that cryoconite deposits, and subsequent cryoconite holes, have existed as long as there have been ice sheets and glaciers: particles from wind-bourne earth erosion, volcanic eruption; … do vulcanologists have anything to say?
how old are cryoconite holes
glaciers are described as receding, but probably melt where they stand, so the nose / snout is only seen as going backwards; position of a cryoconite hole may still be going forward as the glacier melts, because still being built at its iceshed (I just invented this analogue to watershed)
specific content
images of all common or typical cryoconite lifeforms, particularly in cryoconite holes; differences between them
maps of wind patterns which distribute the dust which form part of cryoconite deposits; cryoconite distribution map
time-lapse of cryoconite hole formation
for illustration purposes: image of many cryoconite holes Photoshopped to cover large area
about me
bit of previous in biological and ecological systems: my undergraduate degree’s title was M, so I did plenty of that, but eventually specialised in molecular genetics
Jo’s seaweed work: she makes pressed seaweeds, I make the digitally derived images which are exhibited and sold under her name
currently working as website developer; information management consultant; chef and catering contractor; farmer and cidermaker; …
documents
SEI Creative Associate Awards_Application Form_29_11_17.docx
