Communicating Loss: Ice Research, Popular Art and Aesthetics: Introduction

Climate change—in the form of melting ice—is one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century—a challenge that is difficult to measure, visualise and communicate. Communicating with, and about, ice through different media—including art, images and (popular) visual fiction—gives ice agency. As an active agent evocating the climate emergency and inspiring climate awareness, ice is more than a passive stage in science, (popular) arts and aesthetics. The visual culture and cultural ideas of ice are deeply rooted in colonial fantasies from the nineteenth century, in which ice functioned as a sublime testing ground for heroic deeds. Today, this imaginary has been questioned and transformed into moments of encounter, emotional address and feelings of connection. Using ice for aesthetic communication of climate change challenges the presumed superiority of humans above nature. It gives hope for a fundamental change in material presence (with ice as a shape-shifter) and thus leads to an emotional entanglement of humans with the world’s cryosphere. This chapter not only illuminates the cultural power of ice research but also contributes to a better understanding of the cultural work that emerges from our ecological crisis.