‘slippages’
An Interdisciplinary Project in the Arts and Humanities
Climate crisis has the potential to change humanity and the natural world forever. As such, climate crisis demands our attention.
In 2017, multidisciplinary artist, Deborah Carruthers, served as the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia (UBC). Carruthers teamed up with science researchers at the institution as well as the UBC School of Music to create an interdisciplinary work combining sound, science, and visual art for the purposes of increasing public awareness of the climate crisis and inciting action.
The Inspiration
Above: Aerial views of Athabasca Glacier in recession: photos courtesy NASA.
Carruthers found inspiration for the project on an earlier research trip to Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rockies. The artist was determined to experience glaciers firsthand, motivated by their importance to our living planet; glaciers provide fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, sustain animal and plant life, and determine the level of earth’s oceans. Scientists continue to monitor glacial retreat or melting to determine the impact of atmospheric greenhouse gases released as a result of human activity. Athabasca Glacier is currently melting at a rate of over five meters a year.
The Project
Lying on her back on top of the ice field, Carruthers listened to the voice of the glacier – the natural environment underneath her, above her, and around her, capturing initial experiences through the lens of her camera and notetaking.
The result of Carruthers’ concern for the natural environment, the field trip to Athabasca, and tenure as a Wall Scholar is ‘slippages’– a 27-page graphic score with an accompanying streaming visual component. For the unfamiliar, graphic scores use visual symbols to represent music rather than traditional music notation. Because of their emphasis on the visual, graphic scores are frequently considered works of art in and of themselves.