Ice Archives: Amplifying Greenland’s Geologic Memory

Archives invites viewers into the into the geologic record, buried beneath 1.5 miles of ice, amplifying the signal, exposing where time meets scientific foresight—where the deep memory of ice and sediment intersects with the tools that allow us to glimpse possible futures. The work offers an encounter with climate science not as abstraction, but as material, sensory experience.

The installation traces the spine of Greenland’s ice sheet, from the thinning, melting margins near the ocean to its two-mile-thick summit some 700 kilometers inland. Scientific methods reveal that this immense body of ice has been far smaller in the past, responding to prolonged warmth over millennia. Subglacial matter becomes data, becomes model, becomes image, and finally becomes felt experience. This work translates isotopic records and computational simulations into visual and tactile languages that mediate between scientific models, display systems, and public understanding.

Prudhoe Dome; Camp Century; GISP2 are three locations in Greenland where cores have been drilled and recovered from below 2‑3 kilometers of ice, to help scientists understand Greenland’s history. The extracted cores contain a range of materials and properties that inform us about the history of Greenland’s ice sheet. Each contains a different combination of materials.The screen content is interactive.

Individual textured core samples, laid out on the table, are equipped with light sensors and flashlights. When the core is illuminated, the details within the glass come into focus, as if under a microscope. The light sensor triggers changes to content on the projection or screens that provides further context and visuals related to that section of the core.

Just as scientists use microscopes to magnify the evidence in the ice and sediment, the flashlight acts to amplify the cores in multiple ways. The light sensor triggers changes to content on the projection or screens that provides further context and visuals related to that section of the core. Through this interaction, the viewer comes into simultaneous contact with the beauty of these artifacts and the multilayered information they encode.

The exhibit combines visualization, illustration, physicalization, and interaction to bring the science of the basal ice into the viewers’ own hands. Echoing the methods used to study basal ice, the viewer uses light to reveal layers of meaning within the installation. Handheld flashlights, illuminating the cores from behind, reveal bubbles, textures, and patterns that are invisible to the naked eye. Simultaneously, the light activates a photoreceptor that brings scientific context about that particular sample onto the screens in front of the viewer. Through this transformation, viewers are invited to cultivate an appreciation, sense of wonder, and experience the beauty of these basal materials.

Entry Point Into Science

Left Figure ~ Visualizations of microCT scans of basal material from Camp Century show larger rocks entombed in sediments. Detailed textural analysis of the rocks reveals features like scour marks that are unique to glacially transported.

Middle Figure ~ An example of the images of the cores that Samsel uses to construct the glass constructions of the cores.

Right Figure ~ Illustration of cosmogenic nuclides.

Digitally rendered projections of ice, terrain, and modeled processes are paired with interpretive objects formed from the materials of the Earth itself—glass and ceramics. These tactile artifacts echo the ice and sediment cores that scientists extract to read Greenland’s history. Viewers encounter both the immaterial precision of computation and the physical weight of matter shaped by the human hand. Together, they create a multisensory environment in which knowledge is not only seen, but touched and felt.

Fused glass is used to bring the cores themselves to the audience. The textures within the glass were developed to show the range of materials, patterns and identifying characteristics. The glass cores are the magnet that hold all of the disparate content forms together. Glass like ice has an intrinsic appeal. Fused into ice core textures, their beauty is absorbing.
The abstraction within the core stand‑ins enables them to be the bridge linking all of the digital components. Each section of the glass references a material, a location, a period in time and the movement over the millennia. They form the gathering point that provides the benefits of place‑based engagement

In crafting the glass cores, we frequently worked with a light table to illuminate the cores from behind. Exploring the interactions of texture and color that captured the essence of the basal materials we sought to amplify, we also found that the light revealed qualities in the glass that were invisible without it. Lit up from behind, subtle features became dominant qualities, completely transforming our relation to the piece in front of us. Similar to the way scientists use diverse methodologies to study the basal samples, the light became a way to amplify the hidden stories in these pieces.

In Ice Archives, we have united the physicalizations, illustrations and visualizations through photoreceptors mounted on the back of the cores. Flashlights provided alongside the cores serve a dual purpose; by illuminating sections of core, viewers reveal hidden features in the glass while also activating the screens behind the table, which display scientific findings related to that sample.

Ice Archives installed. On the table in front of the screen are seven glass columns representing the seven types of ice and sediment most relevant to the scientific discussions presented here. Each glass column is backed by photo sensors that are activated by flashlights held by viewers and communicate with the computer driving the screen content. As viewers explore the glass with a flashlight—mimicking the processes scientists use when examining ice cores—the light reveals a microscopic‑like circle of imagery, exposing details not visible without illumination.

This act of interaction and exploration is central to the work. The progressive discovery of newly revealed details draws viewers into sustained engagement, linking close observation with scientific content. By reflecting aspects of the scientific process, the installation exposes viewers to the exploratory practices, uncertainty, and effort inherent in scientific investigation, as well as to the work undertaken to better understand our planet’s processes, past and future.