Feeling nicely motivated today. I’m so excited to have been included in a session at the forthcoming Royal Geographical Society’s Annual International Conference 2025! The theme this year is Geographies of Creativity / Creative Geographies and I’ve been accepted to speak in the session ‘Art-Science Collaborations in the Geosciences’ on art and geomorphology. I’ll be delivering my presentation at Birmingham University when the conference takes place there in August.
My talk will focus on aspects of my collaborative project with BAS scientist Dr Joanne Johnson. In part of this work I creatively explore links between her research at Thwaites Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and how its melting 125,000 years ago contributed to the sea level rise which cut the platform of rock I am sitting on today.
The shapes, textures and colours visible in the varying rock layers tell multiple stories - of time, of movement and of great force. All of these lie behind the aesthetic patterns visible today - I find that mind-blowing!
I’ve had fun transporting myself back 125,000 years whilst sketching from this ancient wave-cut platform looking up towards the rounded pebbles of the raised beach above it. This sits some 8m higher than the current sea level! It’s a stark reminder, if any were needed, of just how much coastline will be lost as ice sheets continue to melt and seas continue to rise globally.
