the documentary Chasing Ice, and the consequential article of the same name examined here by Nicola Jones takes that initial statement and turns it on its head. Published in Nature Climate Change Jones’ article succinctly manages to describe what happened in the 75 minute long documentary. For those who are unfamiliar, Chasing Ice is about National Geographic photographer, James Balog, and his project the Extreme Ice Survey, in which high-resolution time-lapse photography cameras focused on remote glaciers in the U.S., Iceland and Greenland (Jones, 142). The aim was to document the loss of ice over multiple years and prove that climate change is happening. For Balog, the goal of the project was not only to collect sound scientific data, but also to communicate this data to the general population through beautiful artwork (142) which can be seen below:
After the first few weeks of LIS 9372 discussions I was still interested in the relationships that can and do exist between the arts and sciences, and how each can be portrayed through digital humanities. In his article The Two Cultures C. P. Snow asserts that western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups, literary intellectuals pitted against scientists (169). However, Balog captures beautiful images of northern ice, but his photographs also hint at how ice is being destroyed by climate change. The first picture is glacial meltwater caused by their receding. In the second image, bubbles of ancient air frozen for around 15,000 years, but will soon melt and be released.
One of the first things that drew my attention in the article was the subject terms for the article. Listed as “communication” “Cryospheric science” and “media” the terms are a small step forward in acknowledging the importance of art and how it can communicate science to a broad audience. Yet there is no mention of the artistic process Balog used as photography can arguably be considered a fine art. Nor is the importance of the collaboration between art and science mentioned, and the significance of its combination can have on the public. I think this reiterates what was discussed in our class about how sciences are taken much more seriously than humanities, and considered to be more important. Instead, Jones' uses her discussion of photography as simply a means to an end of collecting data, documenting climate change. She compares this process to other glacial surveys done in the past such as by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). What she fails to address is that from the Extreme Ice Survey, Balog regularly exhibits his artwork in a physical manner, but it also has a strong online presence. Unlike the WGMS, the inclusion of an artistic process has led Chasing Ice to affect the general population in a more significant way. People are posting these images on their blogs, and it is the images which draws the viewer in and help spread information throughout various forms of social media. For example, I only discovered the Extreme Ice Survey after a presentation in one of my art history seminars!
One of the first things that drew my attention in the article was the subject terms for the article. Listed as “communication” “Cryospheric science” and “media” the terms are a small step forward in acknowledging the importance of art and how it can communicate science to a broad audience. Yet there is no mention of the artistic process Balog used as photography can arguably be considered a fine art. Nor is the importance of the collaboration between art and science mentioned, and the significance of its combination can have on the public. I think this reiterates what was discussed in our class about how sciences are taken much more seriously than humanities, and considered to be more important. Instead, Jones' uses her discussion of photography as simply a means to an end of collecting data, documenting climate change. She compares this process to other glacial surveys done in the past such as by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). What she fails to address is that from the Extreme Ice Survey, Balog regularly exhibits his artwork in a physical manner, but it also has a strong online presence. Unlike the WGMS, the inclusion of an artistic process has led Chasing Ice to affect the general population in a more significant way. People are posting these images on their blogs, and it is the images which draws the viewer in and help spread information throughout various forms of social media. For example, I only discovered the Extreme Ice Survey after a presentation in one of my art history seminars!
The earthvisioninstitute.org founded by Balog, is very similar to the Omeka websites we explored in class. His original photography has been digitized and exhibited online. As well, there is a media room where short videos of the documentary can be watched or embedded and shar
I think chasing Ice is a unique project that manages to combine geography, art and science in a skillful way and helps to lessen the divide not only between art and science, but also academia and the general population. After meeting Balog and seeing his photos Jessica Poteet, a student blogger summed up, " You see that we have a small home in a vast universe and we have to protect it." While Jones' article might have been published in a scientific magazine, I think it is important to critique such traditional forms of presenting scientific data because the article fails to acknowledge how easily data of climate change can be dismissed by many when compressed into a statistic.
ed through multiple platforms. The graph on the left in the above video is only affective towards a wide audience when the video on the right is displayed with it, but it is also useful to see where and how the camera was moved to document the loss of ice. I think chasing Ice is a unique project that manages to combine geography, art and science in a skillful way and helps to lessen the divide not only between art and science, but also academia and the general population. After meeting Balog and seeing his photos Jessica Poteet, a student blogger summed up, " You see that we have a small home in a vast universe and we have to protect it." While Jones' article might have been published in a scientific magazine, I think it is important to critique such traditional forms of presenting scientific data because the article fails to acknowledge how easily data of climate change can be dismissed by many when compressed into a statistic.
Jones, Nicola. Chasing ice. Nature Climate Change 2, 142 (2012) doi:10.1038/nclimate1431
Published online 24 February 2012.
Poteet Jessica. Mixing Art with Science. October 28, 2014 .http://blogs.dickinson.edu/cop20/2014/10/28/mixing-art-with-science/
Snow, C.P. 1990. “The Two Cultures (Reviewed Work).” Leonardo 23 (2/3): 169–173.
Published online 24 February 2012.
Poteet Jessica. Mixing Art with Science. October 28, 2014 .http://blogs.dickinson.edu/cop20/2014/10/28/mixing-art-with-science/
Snow, C.P. 1990. “The Two Cultures (Reviewed Work).” Leonardo 23 (2/3): 169–173.