Participation in post-glacial process
Anthropogenic climate change shows few signs of reversing before the point of no return. The resulting environmental change generates points of tension between an established populace and the landscape, calling for an adaptive approach to design and management strategy. For the Icelandic population, the experience of environmental impact is especially visceral due to a shared cultural identity rooted in the Icelandic landscape, hence, my project philosophies pursue concepts of Indigenous animism by flattening ontological hierarchies of human exceptionalism and disputing the subject-object binary. This resulted in a proposed series of interconnected interventions that bridge the widening gap between the landscape processes and human inhabitants present between the Hoffelsjökull outlet glacier and the town of Höfn in southeast Iceland.
Manipulated by glacial meltwater, Site 1 records climate warming through the erosion of man-made structures. Eroded pieces are intercepted downstream at Site 2, the location of a decadal community excavation exercise. Excavated pieces are transported to Site 3 -- their installation and subsequent disintegration providing substrate and shelter for developing post-glacial ecologies. Keep reading below for a full explanation of this process-driven intervention series.
Ultimately, environmental changes resulting from a warming climate will likely never cease. However, this project explores how they can be understood in new ways whereby proximal human communities of glacial landscapes can actively participate in the process of ushering in a healthy post-glacial future.
