Whispering Glaciers is an ongoing mixed-media project by artists and researchers Filipe Pais and Erik Geslin, developed through the Center for Non-Anthropocentric Play (CNAP) at Noroff University College in Kristiansand. The project explores the rapidly changing Arctic environment of Svalbard through video, photography, binaural field recordings, and immersive media.

The project emerged in response to the increasingly visible effects of climate change in the Arctic. In June 2025, the CNAP team travelled to Svalbard to observe and document its landscapes and ecosystems, collecting audiovisual material from glaciers, streams, and coastlines. These recordings became the foundation for a VR experience and an online sound archive, where selected recordings can be freely accessed, downloaded, and reused.

Whispering Glaciers aims to create an audiovisual experiential archive of an environment likely to undergo profound transformations in the coming decades. Rather than explaining climate change through data alone, the project creates sensory encounters that encourage audiences to listen to, observe, and reflect on environments that are often geographically distant from everyday experience.

With support from Cultiva, the project has contributed to developing artistic research and expertise in immersive media, sound, and environmentally engaged art in Kristiansand. It strengthens connections between research, education, technology, and cultural production, while generating knowledge and artistic material that can be further developed through exhibitions, educational activities, and collaborations with cultural institutions. In this way, the project contributes to building competence and opportunities for creative practitioners in the region.

“Whispering Glaciers is an attempt to preserve fragments of a landscape in transformation, while creating new ways of listening to and experiencing the Arctic environment.” Pais

More information and documentation from the Svalbard expedition can be found on the CNAP Whispering Glaciers project blog at www.cnap.no/wg-blog/. A demo video of the VR experience, together with the project’s downloadable sound archive, is available at www.cnap.no/wg/.

The project was supported by Cultiva through a grant of NOK 250,000.

Prosjektansvarlig:Center for Non-Anthropocentric Play (CNAP) ved Noroff University College in Kristiansand.
Prosjektet fikk kr 250 000 i fra utlysningen Cultiva Digital i november 2024.