Ice Cores as Temporal Probes

Authors

  • Juan Francisco Salazar Western Sydney University, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.33538

Keywords:

Antarctica, extinction, ice, ice cores, materiality, temporality, vanishing

Abstract

This article develops a speculative approach to thinking about the temporalities of ice.Examining the politics of ice cores as temporal probes, it argues that ice comes to matterin political and ecological terms and as the very "stuff of time". As cylinders of ice thatare extracted through drilling into the deep time of extreme cryogenic environments, icecores become speculative devices to conceive of climates past and future. An analysisof ice-coring practices and technologies as time capsules or temporal probes allowsfor a novel way of thinking about the temporal materialities of ice and its vibrancies anddistributive agency, and how the material-semiotic entanglements of ice-coring practicesbecome a way of listening to the call of matter.

Author Biography

  • Juan Francisco Salazar, Western Sydney University, Australia

    Juan Francisco Salazar is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society, WesternSydney University. Address for correspondence: Institute for Culture and Society, Western SydneyUniversity, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia.

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Published

2018-06-04

How to Cite

Salazar, J. F. (2018). Ice Cores as Temporal Probes. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 5(1), 32-43. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.33538