[Article] The Echoing Wake of a Dying Glacier

[Boreal]

This is really interesting.

https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/1...r-bow-glacier/

Walking through Brookfield Place in Calgary, pedestrians might miss the subtle sounds of bubbling water and breaking ice. Those who spend more time in the plaza, however, or happen to sit next to one of the 16 speakers in the plaza that are a part of the art installation “Herald/Harbinger,” might notice a larger cracking sound. Those sounds convey, in real-time, the devastating shrinking of Bow Glacier, located 135 miles northwest of the city in Banff National Park.

Collaborating with Jeffery Kavanaugh of the University of Calgary and conservation technologist Shah Selbe, artists Jer Thorp and Ben Rubin created the work in the lobby and plaza of the Brookfield Place commercial complex in 2018.

This artwork invites a dialogue between the glacier and the city where its meltwater eventually flows. Calgary is built on both sides of the river, and locals make use of the popular paths and parks that follow the water. “The connection between the Bow and the Calgary river system is so clear,” explained Thorp. “If you rowed a canoe up the Bow River you would end up at the Bow Lake where you can see Bow Glacier.”

[81MC]

So. Cool. Amazing how I’ve missed this and been right there.

Tangentially, I miss seeing downtown has a hub of commerce and wonder what happens to incredible spaces like this in the no-office future.

Also, the documentary ‘Chasing Ice’ is a pretty sobering, but rad look at glaciers.

[jar_e]

I always presumed the main reason was to annoy hobos so they wouldn’t sleep there.