Digital Ice Core

In March of 2019, Cy Keener traveled to the Arctic to deploy RGB light and temperaure sensors through sea ice.  Digital Ice Core is a light sculpture that re-presents ambient light readings in the ice and ocean below at full scale, recorded at noon local time between April 5 and June 14.  The sculpture enables viewers to experience a crirtcal but vanishing aspect of the Arctic environment through open source electronics and data.

Video documentation of the deployment and sculpture here: https://vimeo.com/351105731

Cy Keener is an interdisciplinary artist who uses environmental sensing and kinetic sculpture to record and represent the natural world. He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Emerging Technology at the University of Maryland’s Department of Art. His work includes a range of data-based installations to visualize diverse phenomena including sea ice, wind, rain and ocean waves. He received a Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University, and a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Cy has completed commissioned installations at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Stanford University, Suyama Space in Seattle, and the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas. Over the past year Cy has presented his work at the International Symposium on Electronic Art in Durban South Africa, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C., and OCAD University in Toronto.