Introduction, thinking and feeling our way into the cryosphere

Description

An event organised by the Remote sensing: ice, instruments, imagination research network.

Abstract for the panel discussion

We will use this first session to map the questions of the research network, to introduce ourselves, and to meet everyone who would like to be involved. Thinking about ice requires some exploration of the nature and limits of first-hand experience, and its augmentation through instrumentation, imagination, and bodily practices. In what way must icy places be felt in order to be understood, and how do multidisciplinary approaches contribute to thinking and feeling our way into the cryosphere?

The dialogue between the sciences, humanities and arts gathered around the question of remote sensing of icy landscapes resonates with Michel Serres’s idea of the ‘North-West-Passage’, a conceptual motive which gave title to one of his books, and also runs as a red thread of his thinking about transdisciplinarity and metaphor. We hope to explore the territory between remote sensing and icy landscapes through the multifocal lenses of the sciences, humanities, and the arts.

Suggested readings:

• Yusoff, Kathryn (2011) Navigating the Northwest Passage. In: Envisioning Landscapes, Making Worlds. Geography & the Humanities AAG . Routledge, New York, pp. 299-310.

• Gabrys, Jennifer. “Sensors and Sensing Practices: Reworking Experience across Entities, Environments, and Technologies.” Science, Technology, & Human Values 44, no. 5 (September 1, 2019): 723–36.

• Earth photographs from Gemini III, IV, and V (1967) and Gemini VI through XII (1968).

For enquiries please contact the Networks Programme Manager.