This episode of Warm Regards, the second of two that explore climate data as art, looks at more immersive and embodied experiences of climate data. First, an exploration of the multimedia installation World Without Ice, from producer Justin Schell, and then a conversation between Jacquelyn and Daniel Bird Tobin, who evocatively utilizes theater to help people imagine sea level rise in their own immediate communities. If you haven’t listened to our first episode climate data as art, which featured conversations with Jill Pelto and the founders of the Tempestry Project, you can find it in our podcast feed or at our website:
https://warmregardspodcast.com/episodes/climate-data-and-art-part-1-the-tempestry-project-s1!2effc
For a full transcript of this episode, please visit our Medium page:
https://ourwarmregards.medium.com/climate-data-and-art-part-2-world-without-ice-and-daniel-bird-tobin-66f2b3e0290c
Show Notes
For more information on American opinion polling on climate change impacts, check out the latest Yale Project on Climate Change Communication surveys from April 2020:
The website for the World Without Ice installation:
https://www.WorldWithoutIceInstallation.com
World Without Ice, the book by Dr. Henry Pollack that inspired the work:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6677106-a-world-without-ice
You can also learn more about the works of the three composer-artists who created the sonic and visual dimensions to the project:
Michael Gould:
https://www.gouldmusic.com/
Stephen Rush:
http://stephenjrushmusic.com/
Marion Tränkle:
http://mariontraenkle.eu/
For much more detail on the dataset used by Rush for the composition, visit the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP), visit its site on the Godard Institute for Space Studies:
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
Note, the values used in the story to calculate the musical notes are from the meteorological year (December-November), rather than the calendar year (January-December). Calendar year calculations artificially split the coldest months of the year into different seasons, which can result in slightly skewed data.
You can learn more about John Cage at the site run by the John Cage Trust:
https://johncage.org
If you want to start with one of Cage’s books, go with Silence:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/765651.Silence
Here are links to the other ice-based art projects mentioned:
Ice Watch:
https://olafureliasson.net/archive/artwork/WEK109190/ice-watch
Luftwerk’s Requiem: A White Wanderer:
http://luftwerk.net/projects/white-wanderer/
Matthew Burtner’s Glacier Music:
https://www.ravellorecords.com/catalog/rr8001/
For more information about potential climate change impacts on sea level rise, this is a nice explainer from the NOAA website:
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level
You can find out more about Daniel Bird Tobin and his work, including Flooding the Beach, at his website:
https://www.danielbirdtobin.com
Center for Communicating Science at Virginia Tech:
https://communicatingscience.isce.vt.edu
You can learn more about Peter Sforza’s work at his website:
https://www.cgit.vt.edu/people/biographies/peter-sforza.html
Finally, Daniel Bird Tobin wanted to make sure he thanked Patty Raun and Carrie Kroehler for their leadership of the Center.
Please consider becoming a patron to help us pay our producer, Justin Schell, our transcriber, Joe Stormer, and our social media coordinator, Katherine Peinhardt, who are all working as volunteers. Your support helps us not only to stay sustainable, but also to grow.
Find Warm Regards on the web and on social media:
Web: www.WarmRegardsPodcast.com
Twitter: @ourwarmregards
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WarmRegardsPodcast
In the finale to our season on climate data, we continue our exploration of storytelling as a way to imagine and build climate futures. Jacquelyn and Ramesh first speak with climate …
In the first episode of our two-part finale of our season on climate data, we’re going to focus on fiction, not facts: specifically, on the world-building, future-crafting writers who tell …
In this episode of Warm Regards, we talk to two Indigenous scientists about traditional ecological knowledges and their relationship with climate and …
This episode of Warm Regards focuses on two more facets of decision making based on data about how the climate is changing. We first talk to Beth Gibbons, the Executive Director of the …
This episode of Warm Regards focuses on the intersections, but also the disconnects, between environmental justice and climate justice movements. First, Jacquelyn and Ramesh talk with Dr. …
This episode of Warm Regards continues our exploration of the often unexpected stories behind climate data. First we explore historical climatology …
You can listen to episodes right here on the website, or if you prefer, in a podcast app. Listening in an app makes it easier to keep track of what you’ve already heard, listen without using your data plan and many other conveniences.