Seadoo Seaway: Four Tales of Cultural Imaginaries and Climate Futures on the Trent-Severn

Abstract

Water, ice, and snow are key figures of Canadian cultural identity, and rightly so as Canada has more bodies of water than the rest of the world combined. This cohabitation with water has sponsored a unique cultural landscape, shaping ideas of leisure, sport, and recreation directly informed by water in all its states. The Seadoo Seaway looks to understand, augment, and expand this cultural landscape within the context of changing climates, and resultantly changing relationships between Canadians and water. The project investigates this change within the Trent-Severn Waterway, a recreational waterway in Southern Ontario that is at the forefront of both contemporary reproductions of this cultural imaginary, and rapidly changing climate as the region is set to be the first in the nation to experience winters without frozen waters. The goal of the project is not to longingly reproduce relationships with water but to accept climate realities and provide modes to expand this cultural imaginary into new relationships with water, in all its forms.