Herald/Harbinger
Ben Rubin and Jer Thorp | Calgary
Location: Brookfield Place Calgary, 225 6th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB T2P
About the work
Heralding the dawn of Earth’s Anthropocene period, this artwork incorporates a collection of data feeds to illustrate the interrelationship between human activity in Calgary and the natural system of the Bow Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, which exists in a perpetual state of physical transformation. Inside the lobby, the glacier’s real-time perturbations are visually juxtaposed against the aggregated trajectories of nearby pedestrians and vehicles in a sequence of overlapping visualizations, while outside on the plaza the glacier’s ceaseless activity is made visible and audible, creating a visceral public presence for this restless complex of ice, rock, and water.