Witnessing Glaciers

Overview

From 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 well. I chose climate change and the world's glaciers, using data from the World Glacier Monitoring Service.

Year

2022

Type

Website

Research

Data-driven

Process

I started with the Alps, then widened out. The turning point was the World Glacier Monitoring Service's database, which tracks glacier size and mass worldwide over time.

Research collection in Figma showing Alps imagery and data graphics

Collecting research in Figma

In Processing, I coded animations showing how fast glaciers are shrinking. The dataset flags a set of "benchmark glaciers," heavily monitored ones that stand in for global 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

I ran looser studies alongside the data work. One stuck. I converted the glacier data into MIDI notes and played it through a synthesizer. The sounds came out ancient and otherworldly, and they set the art direction for the site.

A dangerously unscientific study on glaciers and sea level

The website

An interactive scrollytelling site. Using Three.js, I built a 3D Earth and mapped every glacier in the database onto it. Scrolling moves the camera around the globe, zooming in on key glaciers and narrating their decline.

Witnessing Glaciers website hero section

Interactive globe showing glacier locations