Sensing Ice: Exploration of Knowing Nature

Exhibit produced by NEST in collaboration with the CU Boulder Libraries.

Collaborators: Brie Corsa (ESOC, CIRES), Tasha Snow (Geography, CIRES), Naomi Heiser (University Libraries) and with additional reflections by Mark Serreze and Thorvardur Arnason

January 23 – December 31 2022

Benson CU University Libraries

“Sensing Ice: Exploration’s of Knowing Nature is an immersive multimedia exhibit about the lifecycle of the world’s ice and snow. The exhibit was designed and curated by Department of Environmental Studies PhD graduate, Chris Dunn. It features large-format photography and video from Dunn’s research and music by Alaskan composer, Matthew Burtner, performed and recorded on-site with glaciers.

The exhibit presents images from different elevations to evoke a global trajectory that is at once measurable and sensual. Dunn’s breath-taking images of the Khumbu Glacier along the flanks of Mount Everest in Nepal represent the world’s highest storehouses of ice and are placed on the first floor of the exhibit. Images of ice formations and transitions descend to images from Greenland’s terrestrial and coastal glaciers as the ice melts into the sea.

Viewers are invited to contemplate the evolving human relationship with ice on our planet. The Earth's ice is melting. Sea ice is diminishing while ancient ice caps and glaciers pour themselves into the oceans. To most of us, the earth’s icy landscapes seem remote. Yet, the furthest reaches of the earth are responding directly to us and our daily decisions.”