5 April 2022 Observing Sea Ice with An Artist

Journal

We Have an Artist on Our Team

In addition to an oceanographer, climatologist, data scientist, and outreach educator, we are lucky to have an artist as a Co-PI (primary investigator) on our team.

Cy Keener installing his Light Ice Mass Balance Buoy 100 miles north of Barrow Point on the Arctic Ocean. Photo by John Woods

Cy Keener is an interdisciplinary artist who uses environmental sensing and kinetic sculpture to record and represent the natural world. He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Emerging Technology in the Department of Art. His work includes a range of data-based installations to visualize diverse phenomena including sea ice, wind, rain and ocean waves. He received a Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University, and a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Cy has completed commissioned installations at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Stanford University, Suyama Space in Seattle, and the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas.

Check out short videos of Cy's work on Vimeo.

Listen to Embedded.fm Episode 365: Barbed Wire Fence and Great Wifi with Cy Keener

Digital Ice Core photo from https://19.piksel.no/2019/11/21/digital-ice-core/ — Digital Ice Core re-presents ambient light readings in the ice and ocean at full scale. photo from https://19.piksel.no/2019/11/21/digital-ice-core/

The image above was the piece Cy created after the March 2019 IABP trip to Utqiagvik, Alaska to deploy RGB light and temperature sensors through the sea ice. The data was shared real-time through satellite technology and was displayed as light in the Digital Ice CoreA cylindrical section of ice removed from a glacier or an ice sheet using a specialized type of hollow drill. Enter the definition here.. This light sculpture re-presents ambient light readings in the ice and ocean below at full scale, recorded at noon local time between April 5 and June 14, 2019. The sculpture enables viewers to experience a critical but vanishing aspect of the Arctic environment through open source electronics and data.

The Light Ice Mass BalanceThe difference between the mass gained by new ice growth and the amount lost by melting. buoy Cy deployed on April 3, 2022 on this trip, will inspire another art installation in the coming year or so.