Glacier Cave
Immersive Environment
Montreal, 2022
Conception and Direction
Kelly Nunes
Commiossioned by:
Age of Union
Technical Direction
Matthieu Gagnon Lamarre
Technical Lighting
Ghislain Broduer
Touch Designer Developer
Owen Kirby
Sound Design, Mix
Phil Rochefort
3D Designer
Michael Carosello
Industrial Designer
Eric Villeneuve
Photography
Clara Lacasse
Conception and Direction
Kelly Nunes
Commiossioned by:
Age of Union
Technical Direction
Matthieu Gagnon Lamarre
Technical Lighting
Ghislain Broduer
Touch Designer Developer
Owen Kirby
Sound Design, Mix
Phil Rochefort
3D Designer
Michael Carosello
Industrial Designer
Eric Villeneuve
Photography
Clara Lacasse
A permanent interactive installation commissioned by Age of Union for the Earth Centre.
Glaciers are massive, magical, and mysterious entities. Being in their presence you sense how ancient and powerful they are.
Glaciers sometimes form caves inside, and these caves bear water in all of its various forms.
We project wisdom and stoicism onto glaciers. Often having turned from water to ice tens of thousands of years ago, they are never still, always in some state of freezing or thawing, extending, or retracting. It resembles a living organism which is constantly morphing and changing, yet forever preserving a kind of historical record that dates back far in time. Imagine what stories a glacier could tell us.
The Glacier Cave is made of post consumer plastic water bottles. Sound and light and interaction design give the viewer the sense that they are in a glacier which is cracking, and thawing.
The word glacier is quite charged today. It seems like we are constantly on the verge of losing another massive glacier to global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Visitors may feel the connection between this thawing glacier cave that they are sitting in, and the materials used to produce it, as being part of the catalyst for its degradation.
Process
Post-consumer plastic springwater bottles were procured from recycling depots across Quebec. A besoke hotplate was designed to heat and soften the plastic, making it momentarilly pliable for the process of binding the bottles into 8x4’ sheets.
About glaciers caves
Most glacier caves are started by water running through or under the glacier. This water often originates on the glacier's surface through melting, entering the ice at a moulin and exiting at the glacier's snout at base level. Heat transfer from the water can cause sufficient melting to create an air-filled cavity. Some glacier caves are formed by geothermal heat from volcanic vents or hotsprings beneath the ice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_cave
