DETAIL / Walkway of Evolution, Erosion, and Erratic

The materiality and form of the walkway in the Sauðárdalur Valley is one that will continue to extend and erode in tandem with the ruination of the dam itself. What begins as a large-scale installation of concrete slabs will be allowed to move and gradually disintegrate according to the force and flow of the waters travelling down from the resevoir. The result is a dynamic walkway that leads backwards through time, through ruination itself, to the crumbling remains of the monumental Sauðárdalsstífla.

MORE-THAN-HUMAN FUTURES / WETLAND ECOLOGIES

Visualising the future ruins of the Sauðárdalur as a haven for wildlife: a network of braided river channels and streams, pools, and bogs that will encourage the regeneration of wetland ecologies that once proliferated the region. The influx of sediment and glacial flour following the deconstruction of the dam should settle into the riverbeds, providing a richly nutritious substrate to support the growth of native wetland sepcies such as the common cottongrass, arctic willow, or lessertwayblade. Nooks and crevices within the cracked and eroded concrete create a valuable habitat for rarer microecologies such as the fountain apple moss of racomitrium. It is through this gradual process of renaturalisation and ecological succession that the project aims to re-establish a lively yet resilient wetland landscape and ecosystem.

For the complete archival collection of Future Wetland Ecologies, see Appendix, 78.

MORE-THAN-HUMAN FUTURES / AVIAN ECOLOGIES

Wetlands are equally some of the most valuable, and most threatened, habitats in the world. Highly dynamic in nature, they represent an incredibly intricate ecosystem which plays host to a huge diersity of wildlife. The conservation and creation of wetlands for birds in particular - whether acting as important resting areas for migrating birds, or breeding grounds for water birds - is of great importance during the biodiversity crisis we find ourselves in today9. More than that, as the climate continues to destabilse, and glacial melt accelerates, we may find ourselves living in an era of increasing freshwater scarcity. Through the renaturalisation of this wetland landscape, not only is the memory of the meltwater from the glacier preserved, it in turn restores life to this barren landscape. In the coming decades and centuries, we might hope to see the return and multiplication of Whimbrels, Golden plovers, Dunlins and Greylag geese to name a few.

For the complete archival collection of Future Wetland Ecologies, see Appendix, 78.

HUMAN FUTURES / THE EXPERIENTIAL

The human experience of being in the ruinous landscape of the Sauðárdalur will be complex and multi-faceted. A contrary place of both memorialisation and the continual manifestation of futures, of creation and destruction, of actively archiving and preserving information whilst allowing dynamic landscape process to unfold unfettered, a place teeming with life juxtaposed with implications of death (the glacier) and destruction (the dam). It is the ambition of the project that the numerous layers to the experiential dimension of the landscape will encourage a varied, creative, and spontaneous use of the ruins. Some may come to reflect, some to explore, observe, play, or create. The space - acting as a contemplation on glacial histories, transitions, and futures - will be a different experience not only for each person that visits, but each year, season, or occasion of their visit.

HUMAN FUTURES / ARTISTS RESIDENCE 2100

An integral component of the proposed interventions at the Sauðárdalur site is the implementation of an Artists Residency programme, as a continuation of the explorations in atmospheric printmaking of my initial design hypothesis. Whilst reusing the glasshouse constructions of my first semester, the narrative of the project expands - from printmkaing with melting glacial ice to create an atmopsheric archive - to invite artists to record the transitional processes of the Vatnajökull as it becomes liquid. The result, the gradual yet continual accumulation of a physical Future Archive for the Vatnajökull Botanical Park, as well as the creation of new rituals and ceremonies to draw people back to this hidden landscape.

For the full Artists Residence Pamphlet, see Appendix, 101.

Chapter Three