What does a glacier (or climate change) sound like?
On Ludwig Berger’s recordings of melting landscapes
Melting Landscapes: Sight and Sound Observations of the Morteratsch Glacier is a collective project by researchers and students at the Chair of Landscape Architecture Christophe Girot, ETH Zürich. A vinyl album with photo book and sounds composed by Ludwig Berger that collects the recordings of the inner sounds and textures of the Morteratsch glacier is presented in Oscillating Spaces.
Unknown photographer. Rhône Glacier, fall with grotto, undated. Postcard, Zurich: Édition Photoglob. ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Image Archive
Postcard of Rhône Glacier with handwritten message: “Dear Dad! We are going into the glacier. Elisabeth,” 23 July 1921. ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Image Archive
Adolphe Braun. Alpinists in the Rhône Glacier, 1864. Gelatin silver print, ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Image Archive
Unknown photographer. Staking and construction of the yellow stone row, Rhône Glacier, September 1874. ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Image Archive
Unknown photographer. Ice grotto at the mouth of the Rhône glacier, 24 August 1901. ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Image Archive
Melting Landscapes documents the transformation of Switzerland’s Morteratsch Glacier. Located in the Grison (Bündner) Alps, the glacier has been visited by scientists and artists alike since the nineteenth century, and it became a highly popular tourist destination with the arrival of Bernina railway in 1908 (making the Morteratsch the most accessible glacier).
With the glacier’s retreat, the site remains a popular site of scientific inquiry. Over three years, from 2015 to 2018, a group of almost 30 students and faculty led by Christophe Girot, of the Institute of Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich, documented the changing landscape of the glacier. Using underwater microphones to record sounds from crevasses, glacier puddles, and ice, Melting Landscapes reveals the inner acoustic textures of the melting processes.
Unknown photographer. Rhône Glacier from the road, Furka Pass, Switzerland, 1902. Stereograph. Library of Congress
These field recordings highlight what we do not hear or notice because it exists beyond the human scale, offering an intimate experience of the microscopic sounds that tell a glacier’s history and possible future. In amplifying the sounds of moving ice, this group confronted and bore witness to the immense and overwhelming impacts of climate change.
Unknown photographer. Furka Pass with Rhône Glacier and Gärsthorn, ca. 1925–1930. Postcard, Édition Photos u. Souvenirs Magazin. ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Image Archive
For more information on the project and samples of the sound recordings, visit https://ludwigberger.com/work/melting-landscapes/ and https://landscapearchitecture.bandcamp.com/album/melting-landscapes.
