Rob Reynolds

A Fragile Absolute 1.2, 2023

Animated digital rendering of iceberg data Cervino SF0518A viewed in Snapchat augmented reality lens.

Dimensions Variable

Reynolds’ A Fragile Absolute 1.2, 2023, includes an animated, digital artist interpretation of the Cervino/SF0518A iceberg data, extending his experimental approach to art, representation, and ecology to a virtual presence in the gallery space. Visible through mobile phones and portable devices through a custom lens in the Snapchat application, this site-specific, animated rendering of the same model used to create the marble sculpture, anchored to its pedestal. Centered in Mignoni gallery space, its random animated movement mimics the motion of actual icebergs, with a sound loop created with field recordings of icebergs Reynolds made in Greenland. It is a scaled-down model of monumental outdoor AR installations the artist has created with L.A. based technologists that will be unveiled later this year and in 2024.

A Fragile Absolute 1.2, 2023 (Cervino/ SF0518A) is derived from based on drone-based structure- formation and subsurface multi-beam sonar data of what was named the Cervino/SF0518A iceberg, captured in the Sermilik Fjord, near the town of Tasilaq in Southeastern Greenland on August 5th, 2018. The digital master image file was created by Rob Reynolds Studio working with data captured by earth scientists Professor Dave Sutherland Ph.D (oceanice.org), and Kristin Schild, Ph.D., University of Oregon Dept of Earth Sciences, and their team, with the support of the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (Arctic Natural Sciences), with purpose of using iceberg geometries to understand the impact of freshwater flux on local and global ocean current circulations.

 

At 352 meters long, 285 meters high, 70 meters above the waterline and 231 meters deep, the iceberg was about three times bigger than the New York Public Library, with an overall fresh water volume equivalent to 734 Olympic sized swimming pools at time of capture. Above water volume at the moment of capture is 1,506,660 cubic meters, assuming standard ocean water and ice densities, with a total iceberg volume of 18.356 million cubic meters. This is the total amount of fresh water added to the ocean when it ultimately mixed with ocean water. The moment the iceberg calved from the Helheim Glacier and floated freely, the sea level rose 0.00002326mm. Approximately 17,000 icebergs of this size calved from the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2018, raising the ocean approximately .5mm. Cervino/SF0518A drifted southeastward at 0.027m/s from local coordinates 65.870°N, -37.867°W. As of May 2021, when the digital file master was created, Cervino/SF0518A had since drifted in a figure eight pattern, ultimately leaving Sermilik Fjord, travelling down fjord and around Cape Farewell at the southern tip of Greenland, disappearing as its form changed and mixed with ocean waters. It is now sea water.

Video of the Augmented Reality Lens

Rob Reynolds
A Fragile Absolute, (Cervino/SF0518A 65.9321°N, -38.3352°W 12:40-2:15PM), 2022
CNC fabricated statuary Carrara marble iceberg on plywood shipping crate
14 x 18 x 16 in.
(35.6 x 20.3 x 40.6 cm)
crate dimensions:
30 x 20 x 20 in.
(76.2 x 50.8 x 50.8 cm)