Scenes of the Far North: Models, Metrics & Machines

Abstract:
Remote sensing technologies play an increasingly central role in mediating our interactions with the world’s oceans.

In the Arctic Ocean, a remote and inhospitable region, which few encounter in person, the resulting maps, models, data sets, and images have an outsized influence on environmental and geopolitical decision-making, and ecological imaginaries across the globe. Far from being unbiased replicas of the landscape, however, these scenes are increasingly distorted by the conflicting agendas of extractive industries, nation states, and research institutes, as the effects of climate change turn the Arctic Ocean into a stage-set for escalating tensions.

What does it mean to encounter ecologies—from microscopic to planetary scale—through senses other than our own? What are the implications of translating ecologies into digital formats, to be stored on silicon chips and servers across the globe? And what is the role of artists and designers in the growing landscapes of machine senses?

Session:
Eco-Scenarios - Performing Scale Critique