Lori Hepner

I have been thinking about the experiences of future climate change, our perception of the future landscape, and how we imagine our own landscapes changing from our memories of them over the course of our lifetimes. The threat of climate change and the future shifts that it will cause to the physical landscape will trigger adaptations to our recollections of our personally meaningful landscapes. How the Arctic will change, in physical space and in the space of the mind of those who live there, is of great interest to me.

I began developing this work through a desire to experience places that will be changing dramatically over the course of my own lifetime. Through silent hikes, boat rides amongst deserted islands, and guidance into local landscape stories over saunas and swimming pools, I was shown places on the precipice of climate change across the Arctic.

In addition to my own artwork, the project includes the potential for a participatory public art event or workshop. Participants will focus on two short steps:

1. The Future Memory of our Climate: A short thought about how future climate change may affect one’s personal landscapes in the future.

2. Images of Personal Landscapes Past: A photograph that one took of a landscape that is important enough to their personal history that it lives on their phone.

Individuals will combine these elements into a single LED light painting in long exposure photography. Their movements will mix the legible text their landscape image into one.