The arctic seems remote from civilization, but if you doubleclick on the map below, houses appear as you zoom in. The scale is astounding. A cluster of modern dwellings are dwarfed by the ice bergs drifting past, as they make their way out into the surrounding ocean from the accelerating glacier to the right. Here, the scale of nature seems immense.
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The arctic environment functions as a magnifying glass, when attempting to understand natural processes on a global scale. Here, the fluctuations of the ozone layer and the historical framework for measuring the global effect of climatic change emerged. For the last decades numerous scientific research stations have monitored the quantifiable parameters of these changes. Perhaps nature is catching up with man. As a consequence time itself seems to accelerate with us.
Kullorsuaq
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In september 2009 we visited the settlement Kullorsuaq on the Nortwestern coast of Greenland. Here 400 people live and work, most of them earning their living by hunting whale, seal and fishing. Connected with nature and modern life. We were welcomed by what was to become our friends.
We also discovered that there were allready some research stations convening in the outskirts of the settlement; tracking the sun, surveying the atmosphere, monitoring the weather, but none of the research accounted for the presence of humans. This was also home.
It is on the outskirts of this settlement we want to work for a year – the research station recording the acceleration of time – four inhabitants of Kullorsuaq will participate in the project and frequent our research station, performing repeated walks and stage profane actions that intersect the yearly seasons with daily human routines.
