Dr. Douglas Tewksbury, associate professor of communication and media studies, is one of 30 international artists, scientists, architects, and educators chosen to participate in a unique expeditionary residency program in the Arctic Ocean.
As a member of the Arctic Circle, Dr. Tewksbury will live and work on board a specially outfitted Barquentine sailing vessel for nearly three weeks in October while exploring the waters and glaciers of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The program, established in 2009, encourages interdisciplinary collaboration as the participants pursue their personal projects on climate change. Dr. Tewksbury will be doing sound art and music during his residency.
“The climate crisis is our most pressing issue, so I'm especially honored to be chosen to be in the company of these 29 other incredible artists from around the world, creating environmental art on glaciers in the high arctic,” he said. “I think that it's important for artists to create work on issues that matter, and that first-hand witnessing is an especially important part of representing and understanding environmental issues. But I'm particularly excited for the creative sound and image works that will come from this experience, and for the opportunity to bring these experiences back to my undergrad students in my environmental humanities courses.”
Dr. Tewksbury is an electronic and experimental musician from Hamilton, Ontario. His work commonly uses original and adapted material on very long loops of analog tape on multiple (and sometimes half-functional) tape machines, building mini-symphonies of human voices, instruments, and synthesizers to create long-form ambient works.