Call 07758225698 to Hear a Glacier Melting
by Bonnie Alter, London on 06. 9.07
If you want to hear the sound of global warming, in the form of the largest glacier in Europe melting and eroding, call the number listed above. The artist Katie Paterson is camped out in the cold at Vatnajokull, Iceland where she has installed a waterproof microphone into an ice cap in the lagoon. It is linked to a phone on land. She got help from Virgin Mobile to do this as part of her graduating year art school project. At the gallery exhibition in London all that can be seen is a neon sign with her mobile number. As she says, "This lagoon is a graveyard of glaciers. In a way there is something heartbreaking about this, knowing that you are listening to something magnificent being destroyed - but it is also very beautiful, a celebration of nature." She has been fascinated with glaciers for awhile. Her last work involved recording the sound of melting icebergs on a long playing disc, then using water from the glaciers to make a frozen cast--which did play and reproduced the sound until it began to melt. To make the experience more intimate, only one person can be ‘connected’ to the glacier at anyone time. It is very hard to get through so trying in the small hours of the morning is recommended. :: Guardian
Interesting :) Could they make it a 1-800 number?
It'd be less arty but more accessible if these sounds could be recorded and put on a website somewhere. Perhaps when the artist moves on to a new project, she can make this one available to more people.