Artist and sculptor Wayne Binitie’s immersive exhibition, Polar Zero, explores the past, present and future of our relationship with the planet and its climate. In this brief film, hear from the artist and scientists involved in its creation. (Recorded in September 2021).
The exhibition features an original glass sculpture encasing Antarctic air from the year 1765 – the date that scientists say predates the Industrial Revolution – and an Antarctic ice core containing trapped air bubbles that reveal a unique record of our past climate. Locked deep in Antarctic ice is a unique archive of the Earth’s history reaching back 800,000 years. Tiny bubbles of air that were trapped as snow fell reveal the astonishing rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Find out more from artist Wayne Binitie, Arup Fellow Graham Dodd, and BAS Glaciologist Dr Robert Mulvaney. Polar Zero is a science-art collaboration between artist Wayne Binitie (Royal College of Art), scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and engineers and designers from Arup, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The exhibition launched at Glasgow Science Centre, October 2021, for COP26.
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- 13 and over
- Climate Change
British Antarctic Survey: Data as Art
Data as Art is a series of dramatic and powerful artworks that are visually engaging and help to explain complex science and their importance. -
- 8 and over
- Climate Change
- Research
British Antarctic Survey: Ice Core Research Gallery
This gallery shows the process of retrieving and analysing ice cores to taking clues from the past to help predict our climate future.