Stories Written By The Sky

Stories Written by The Sky is an immersive, interactive film that follows four researchers grappling with temporal collapse and climate grief amidst an arctic expedition. This project emerged from an interest in the scalings and measurement of time in climate narratives and the limitations of doomsday clock imaginaries. This work narrates, through the lens of the carbon metabolisms frozen into the permafrost and temporal rituals.

This project began as an interactive film that evolved into a larger pedagogical project in which we explore the arctic as Chronograph, or timekeeper in climate narratives. Our Project grapples with the techno-ideologies behind the freezing and thawing of life in extreme environments as a survival mechanism for humanity: from cryo-preservation, to the creation of newer and faster instruments of vision, to temporal thefts and extraction in the arctic region.

Emerging from a series of workshops and conversations, the narratives within are based on stories collected from permafrost scientists, geologists, artists, and new friends that we met along the way on our first arctic expedition. Currently in post-production, the film is part machinima ( a portmanteau of "machine" and "cinema" ) and part experiential video game. Through choice based narratives, the “player” embodies the point of view of the researcher as they meander through different temporal flows in a Virtual Dome or through a VR Headset.

The Moon Rhymes with Frost

Phase 1 pf principal shooting took place in May 2024 in Svalbard, Norway with the support of Max Q Innovation Grant, Satellite Institute, Artica Svalbard and a host of generous participants who shared their stories with us in a temporal and experimental pastry workshop led by Chef Ethan Kan.

Inspired by the end of polar night and the ethereal glow of moonlit nights, this workshop invited participants to immerse themselves in a ritualistic culinary experience. Mooncakes, traditionally associated with lunar festivities, paid homage to the celestial and embrace the symbolism of seeds in the snow.Through hands-on guidance, participants worked with grains and seeds to make their own pastry from scratch. Together we explored the concept of rituals as temporal technologies, and imagined alternative ways of modeling and representing time.

Collaborations

As part of the multimodal outcome of this project, we worked alongside sound artist Dynoman to build the soundscape of our film, inspired by sounds collected by glaciologist Ugo Nanni, who is studying the rapid thawing of permafrost and glaciers in the arctic using sonic vibration.

More forthcoming!

Past

Future