Mendenhall in Motion: Inscribing Glacial Time and Animating Ecological Thresholds

Abstract

Sited in Juneau, Alaska, this project interrogates the aging tourist infrastructure surrounding Mendenhall Valley’s retreating glacier and proposes novel modes of access and interaction. Mendenhall Valley’s existing agenda of visitation dilutes landscape through staged, distanced, and static encounters. This approach to landscape engagement has perpetuated a detrimental culture of visual consumption and results in image-centric encounters devoid of haptic intimacy.

As glaciers retreat, they inscribe a legible succession of interactions between bedrock, ice, water, soil, and plants. The proposed visitor experience strives for ecological comprehension through tactile encounters that prioritize discovery, movement, and material accessibility. Several designed interventions enable haptic engagement with the variety of ecological processes occurring within and around Mendenhall Glacier. By reorganizing tourist infrastructure and expanding local research institutions, this project strives to create narrative material compositions and interrogate relationships between viewer and viewed.