Communicating Ice through Popular Art and Aesthetics

"The authors of Communicating Ice tell the stories and stages of ice, showing how its manifold bodies communicate from beyond the schemas of the Western tradition." -Amanda Boetzkes, University of Guelph, Canada

"With its well-written analyses, new insights and, not least, uplifting visions of new approaches, collaborations and opportunities, this book is a joy to read." -Kirsten Thisted, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

"This book makes a compelling attempt to understand ice not as an object but as an agent with which we must interact differently. Ultimately, the highly recommended volume points to the extreme urgency of political action to curb global warming"

-Evi Zemanek, University of Freiburg, Germany

"This collection brilliantly illustrates how storytelling and aesthetic presentation are crucial aids to understanding and communicating about objects of scientific inquiry. A timely and vital contribution to the environmental humanities, posthumanism and science communication."

• Chris Danta, School of Cybernetics, Australian National University, Australia

This edited collection is the first of its kind to explore the influences and interconnections between artistic and scientific understandings of, and communication around (the melting of) ice. This book investigates and clarifies the ecological and cultural implications of losing ice in the face of climate change - from glaciers to permafrost valleys, from scientific excursions into ice to its representation in (popular) art and culture. Bringing together diverse perspectives from research and practice across disciplines and media, this volume pioneers research into the cultural power of ice.

Dr Anne Hemkendreis is a Lecturer (Senior Researcher) in the (SFB 948) Heroes - Heroizations - Heroism research group at the University of Freiburg (Germany) and a member of the German Young Academy.

Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens is a Lecturer in Popular Entertainment Studies at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University (ANU) and the Head of Popsicule, ANU's Science in Pop Culture and Entertainment Hub.

Autorentext

Dr Anne Hemkendreis is a Lecturer at the research collaboration (SFB 948) Heroes - Heroizations - Heroism at the University of Freiburg (Germany). Her current book project examines the aesthetic and affective dimension of ice and snow in paintings, artistic performances and installations. Starting with the peak of the polar conquests around 1900, her project is dedicated to the development of snowscapes as an independent genre of art, the function of ice in contemporary feminist art and its agency in communicating climate change. Prior to this, Anne's PhD thesis explored the interior paintings of the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (Fink Verlag, 2015). Anne also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg of Greifswald, the Klassik Stiftung of Weimar and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg (all in Germany). She functioned as a Lecturer at different institutions, including the University of Arts in Berlin Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Science Communication at the Australian National University exploring science in popular entertainment and pop culture. She has published on circus fiction and aesthetics, the history of (violent) clowns, comic mad scientists, clown robots, the cultural meanings of science, and comic performance and technology in culture in numerous academic journals. She was an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow at the Australian National University and the Freie Universität Berlin from 2017 to 2020. She is the guest editor of two special themed journal issues on popular performance and science (Journal of Science & Popular Culture, 2020) and violent clowns (Comedy Studies, 2020), co-editor of Manegenkünste: Zirkus als ästhetisches Modell (transcript, 2020) and the sole editor of the volume Circus, Science and Technology: Dramatising Innovation (Palgrave, 2020). Her next co-edited book, Circus and the Avant-Gardes, will appear in 2022.