ADRIANE COLBURN
For The Deep, is a series of works derived from research conducted in the Arctic Ocean aboard the US Coast Guard Icebreaker, The Healy in conjunction with the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at UNH. (CCOM) This body of work, including video footage, under water recorded sound, sculpture and drawing, brings to light a number of complex political and scientific issues held sway in the dramatic seascape of the Arctic Ocean.
The Arctic is currently at the center of global politics as it is one of the areas most affected by climate change. Scientists predict that there will be ice-free summers in the arctic in as little as ten years. Although this vast region is one of our planets most remote, it harbors some of the world’s largest reserves of oil and gas as well as the potential for valuable shipping routes should the sea ice retreat. It is also home to numerous animals living under the threat of extinction due to habitat loss and a range of territorial debates.
Aboard the Healy the scientists from CCOM are mapping the sea floor of the Arctic Ocean to conduct geologic research and support the US claim for the Law of the Sea, a UN convention that will expand Nation’s sovereignty over seafloor resources such as oil. This past summer, while on one of these mapping expeditions, I began an extensive visual exploration of this remote world. This has resulted in a number of works that will be combined to create a large-scale installation.
For the Deep, Phase One is a reconstruction of a section of the Chuckchi Cap, an oil rich area of the Arctic seafloor that the United States will lay claim to. Its form is generated by translating the sonar data (collected on the Healy) that is used to define the 3-dimensional topography of the ocean floor into a series of flattened digital prints using unfolding software. This work is presented in between 2 and 3 dimensions, but like origami, the unfolded topographies can be refolded in order to recreate sections of the contested underwater territory.
For the Deep, Phase Two is also derived from maps of the arctic seafloor along with video and photographs taken while onboard The Healy; audio recordings of ships, ice and marine mammals recorded from the bottom of the Arctic Ocean; and sub-bottom profiles of the geology of the seabed. The primary map-structure of Phase Two depicts the US efforts in the Arctic to support Article 77 of the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea. In an effort to determine the location and span of the United States’ continental shelf north of Barrow, Alaska, scientists are mapping the seafloor sending sonar straight down through the water, creating stripes of maps as they travel. The path they choose to map is determined by where it is believed the continental shelf might extend and where the ice pack allows the ship to break through. In this process, we gain strands of information that bring to light this submerged topography. We also loose bits of information, getting holes and gaps in the data as the sound of a 420 foot ship crashing though thick sea ice interrupts the sonar. The result is a drawing made by the ship’s track and corresponding sound.
The fruit of my process is in between data, a map and a landscape- a visualization of part of our planet that has never been seen and that embraces the abstraction that occurs through the process of making the invisible visible. I am interested in how there is never the possibility to map something accurately given all the bias and subjective thought that contribute to data visualization. In fact, no one has ever actually “seen” this part of the seafloor; we only understand it because it is being mapped using sonar- it is visualized through sound.
In addition to these two works, for the Deep includes a number of photographs, smaller drawings, videos and CNC carved sculptures. All of these elements are intended to comprise a large installation that combines the ethereal and atmospheric otherness of the Arctic Ocean, the linear marks of visualized data, and the allure of a politically charged landscape that is submerged 4,000 meters under the icy Arctic waters.