Paper Short Abstract:

Photos of melting glaciers are symbolically loaded imagery of climate change, epitomizing the extend of loss through charismatic imagery. Arguing that glacier ontologies become defined with through ‘glacier gaze’, we turned it to a mundane site, and invited a snow dump to become an urban glacier.

Paper Abstract:

Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change. The melting of those charismatic massives is a central element in the shared imaginary of the loss followed by the anthropogenic climate change. Indeed, photo series of vanishing glaciers are recognized as some of the most iconic and symbolic imagery of the effects of climate change. Drawing from performative theory, we argue that glacier ontologies become defined through this ocular performance, which we coin a ‘glacier gaze’.

As glaciers are loaded with their rich symbolism, attuning to glacial thinking demands us to recognize loss, making glaciers as naturecultural entities ‘good to think with’. Thinking with glaciers, we turn our attention to more mundane and urban experiences of the effects of climate change. In a series of performative, collective workshops organised in a local snow dump site in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland in spring 2025, we turned the ‘glacier gaze’ to this mundane yet obscure site in an urbanized cryoscape, and invited a snow dump to become an urban glacier. By playfully amplifying the glacier gaze and changing its object to an urbanized, mundane everyday site, we aim to explore the effects and expectations implicated in the visualized practice of performing the glacier. Re-imagining an everyday site, like the snow dumps, could open a possibility to potential new ways of recognizing, researching, and thinking with climate change related loss.