Materials and media
Year
Programming
Funded by
Exhibition
Faces of Water, BOZAR, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 2022
Eco(Systems) of Hope, Printemps Numerique, Montreal (CA), 2022
Post-Digital Intersections, Timisoara (RO), 2023
Future Tense: Art, Complexity, and Uncertainty – at BEALL Center, Irivine LA (US), 2024
Look into my Ice – at Tartu Art House (LT), 2024
This is part III of the ‘Glacier Trilogy’
The Glacier Trilogy is an immersive artwork investigating glaciers as the starting point of fluvial systems and the future of water in climate crisis. Produced by combining advanced computational technologies (such as generative adversarial networks, atmospheric sensors or real-time ice-fluid simulation for 8K) with sculpture materials and human creativity, the Glacier Trilogy (GT) stimulates an emotional engagement of its audience.
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Drawing on the hourglass as a model of a gravity-bound, closed system, Theresa Schubert developed a self-organising generative video work in collaboration with Sage Jenson. The simulation renders the temporal transformation of a digital glacial body: its gradual phase transition from solid ice into liquid flow before accumulating in a basin. The particle systems runs over a digital elevation map of chosen sections of the Westitalian Alps.
The work operates through computational processes that emulate hydrological dynamics, where the material states of water—frozen and fluid—act as geomorphic agents, continuously inscribing and reshaping the landscape.
The exhalation of visitors has a direct impact on the melting process of the glacial ice mass as carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors in the exhibition space will be connected to specific parameters in the video. In this feedback loop between body, data, and simulation, distinctions between natural and digital systems begin to dissolve. Thus, a very direct impact of humans on the environment can be experienced.
The work complex is based on Schubert’s research of fluvial systems in the Piemont area in North-West Italy. Schubert makes works that discuss the human impact on the environment, but also how we can use technology for better and more respectful relationships with nature, which is necessary as humanity is confronted with climate crisis. Glaciers hold an extreme importance not only as storages of water but also as a memory of the earths past and as indicators of climate change. Glacier ice archives millennia-old (an)organic information, such as (micro)organisms, pollen, and atmospheric dust, allowing scientists to acquire knowledge about ancient ecosystems and to predict future climate scenarios.
Rebuilding relationships with river systems presents the final works of artists Theresa Schubert and Joshua G. Stein, the result of their residencies within the project S+T+ARTS4Water (2021-2022), part of S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology and the Arts), an initiative of the European Commission promoted within the framework of the research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, supporting collaborations between artists, scientists, engineers and researchers. Curated by UNIDEE Residency Programs and Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto’s Art Office
Find out more about my residency and the development process on the STARTS4Water Journal.
