Paper short abstract:

Glacial Hauntologies is an interdisciplinary collaboration between glaciologists and artists working to translate, subvert, and repurpose tools from a multitude of disciplines to explore geophysical data and glaciological archives related to Thwaites Glacier and the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

Paper long abstract:

Glacial Hauntologies is an interdisciplinary collaboration between early-career scientists from the International Thwaites Glacier Consortium (ITGC) and two New England-based environmental artists. 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 - we work within a team of scientists to record radar, seismic, magnetotelluric, and gravity data to learn about the shallow crust structures, subglacial topography, and the glacier's response to stresses. 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, interactive glaciological data presentations, and other multimedia work.

This paper will detail work from this collaboration, propose a framework for intersectional, transdisciplinary creative research, and discuss the outcomes of doing integrated artistic and scientific research about Thwaites Glacier.