Witnessing Glaciers

Overview

This project came out of a workshop taught by Scott Reinhard, a graphics designer at The New York Times. The brief was to work as both journalist and designer, picking an issue, finding real data, and presenting it in an engaging way. I chose the impact of climate change on the world's glaciers, working with data from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS).

Year

2022

Type

Website

Research

Data-driven

Process

I started with background research on glaciers, first focusing on the Alps and then widening out to the whole world. The turning point was finding the World Glacier Monitoring Service's database, which tracks the size and mass of glaciers worldwide over time. Once I had the data, I started sketching ways to present it.

Research collection in Figma showing Alps imagery and data graphics

Collecting research in Figma

In Processing, I coded animations showing how quickly glaciers around the world are shrinking. The WGMS dataset also highlights a set of "benchmark glaciers," which are heavily monitored and stand in for global glacier trends.

Data visualization showing global glacier shrinkage over time

First Processing sketch

Gulkana glacier visualization as shrinking wireframe cube

Wolverine glacier visualization as shrinking wireframe cube

Lemon Creek glacier visualization as shrinking wireframe cube

South Cascade glacier visualization as shrinking wireframe cube

Alongside the data work, I ran looser studies to spark ideas. One of them stuck. I converted the glacier data into MIDI notes and played them through a synthesizer. The sounds came out ancient and otherworldly, and they set the art direction for the final website.

A dangerously unscientific study on glaciers and sea level

The website

The final piece is an interactive scrollytelling website. Using Three.js, I built a 3D model of the Earth and mapped all the world's glaciers from the WGMS database onto the sphere. As you scroll, the camera moves around the globe, zooming in on key glaciers and narrating their decline. The site turns the dataset into a story you can explore, one glacier at a time.

Witnessing Glaciers website hero section

Interactive globe showing glacier locations