Ice Core Verticality. The Eloquence of Ice and the Visual Construction of Deep Time

Authors

  • Valeria Burgio Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
  • Emiliano Guaraldo Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

Abstract

Ice cores are fundamental techno-scientific components of the visual culture of the Anthropocene. Through the eloquence of ice, the Anthropocene sets the tone for its own narration, one made of impending apocalypse, planetary boundaries, and irreversible tipping points, while, at the same time, attesting for the “lively materiality” of ice, and of its past and present states. This essay analyzes and determines the narrative agency and the semiotic complexity of ice cores within the contested terrain of the Anthropocene thesis and presents two recent art-science collaborative projects exploring the aesthetic dimension of ice cores: Susan Schuppli’s Ice Cores (2019) and Giulia Bruni and Armin Linke’s Earth Indices (2022).

Author Biographies

Valeria Burgio, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

Valeria Burgio is a research fellow at  Ca’ Foscari University in Venice as a member of ERC project “Health-X-Cross”, where she deals in particular with scientific visualization in relation to the evolution of vision technologies of forms of microscopic life. In her previous activity as a temporary researcher at the Free University of Bolzano, she dealt with the use of infographics in visual journalism and divulgative scientific communication. She is the author of Rumore visivo. Semiotica e critica dell’infografica (2021) and co-editor, with Matteo Moretti, of Europa Dreaming. Yearning for Europe from the Brenner Pass (2019). She is also the author of the monograph William Kentridge (2014).

Emiliano Guaraldo, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

Emiliano Guaraldo è assegnista di ricerca in scienze umane ambientali presso il New Institute Centre for Environmental Humanities a Ca' Foscari. Ha conseguito il titolo di dottorato presso la University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill nel 2019 ed ha svolto attività di ricerca ed insegnamento alla University of Virginia (2010-12), all'Università di San Gallo (2019-2020), e all'Università di Bolzano (2020). È co-curatore del volume Italian Science Fiction and the Environmental Humanities (per Liverpool University Press, in uscita nel 2023) e del doppio numero di Holotipus Archiving the Anthropocene: New Taxonomies Between Art and Science (2023). I suoi interessi di ricerca includono lo studio delle culture visive e letterarie dell'Antropocene, approcci ecocritici alle arti nel contesto italiano, e il rapporto fra trasformazioni planetarie, produzione visuale e giustizia ambientale. Dal 2021 fa parte del gruppo di ricerca interdisciplinare Unruly Natures.

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Published

15-12-2022

How to Cite

Burgio, V., & Guaraldo, E. (2022). Ice Core Verticality. The Eloquence of Ice and the Visual Construction of Deep Time. Elephant & Castle, (28), 56–68. Retrieved from https://elephantandcastle.unibg.it/index.php/eac/article/view/302

Issue

No. 28 (2022): Mediacene

Section

Articoli

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Copyright (c) 2023 Elephant & Castle

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.