Ice Hours is a series of 6 film vignettes featuring stunning Antarctic landscapes and the surrounding ocean. Through close encounters with inspiring and endangered features of our changing planet, Ice Hours articulates that humans are not separate from nature.
Ice Hours is built upon a decade of video footage captured by National Geographic photographer Camille Seaman, then transformed by film artist Kim Miskowicz and set to the music of composers Kristina Dutton and Nathan Clevenger.
A multifaceted production suitable for cinema, performing arts, and educational contexts, the project premiered as a live concert event at San Francisco's Exploratorium in March 2019. The sold-out event featured a live music score for 9-piece chamber ensemble with strings, percussion, and piano.
The live performance was followed by a 6-week installation in the Exploratorium’s Webcast Studio in Spring of 2019, and in the Osher Gallery from November 2019 to January 6th, 2020. It is an evolving work with a versatile design meant for film, installation, and cutting-edge online platforms.
The project was conceived by Dutton after she and Seaman collaborated on an improvised work at a TED salon event. Ice Hours takes its cue from the origins of the conservation movement which, according to the National Park Service, was catalyzed by the work of artists and photographers such as Ansel Adams & Thomas Moran. Their artistic representation of landscapes caught the eye of Congress, resulting in the preservation of such places as Yellowstone National Park. Similarly, Ice Hours shows the evolving beauty and changing shape of the Antarctic. It captures our relationship with our environment through the personal, theoretical, & impressionistic.
The project is supported by New Music USA and the Fleishhacker Family Foundation, in partnership with San Francisco's Cinematheque.
Ice Hours, a trailer from the multimedia concert featuring over a decade of footage from Antarctica, courtesy of photographer Camille Seaman. Images, Kim Miskowicz. Music, Kristina Dutton.
Sounds in the Sea is a series of immersive soundscape listening experiences coupled with artist and scientist talks that reveal the history of our ocean soundscapes and the impact human-generated sound has on marine animals. The project is a collaboration between composer Kristina Duttonand bio-acoustic research non-profit Ocean Conservation Research.
An intro to Sounds in the Sea’s Bay Area soundscape, created by the Exploratorium's Kate O'Donnell.
Soundscape composer Kristina Dutton and Ocean Conservation Research Director Michael Stocker guide us through some of the sounds we’ll be hearing, while bioacoustics scientists Dave Mellinger and George Czeck give context to both specific species as well as the importance of ocean acoustics research.
The journey takes an underwater cruise starting in the estuaries of San Francisco, through the Golden Gate, into kelp forests of the northern California Coast, and down deep into Monterey Bay Canyon.
Listen to a clip of the soundscape below, or the full audio at The Exploratorium’s website.
An excerpt from longer soundscape piece that aired on World Ocean Day at The Exploratorium, June 8th, 2020.
This soundscape has no anthropogenic (human generated) sound. It represents a pristine, natural version of the Northern California coastline's marine ecosystem. Marine life present in this soundscape include snapping shrimp, midshipman (fish), silver perch, humpback whales, minke whale.
Through the eyes of filmmakers Kristina Dutton and Maya Pisciotto, an experimental mini doc offering a glimpse into the world of researchers working in the biological sciences.
Minute localized changes in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. Just before dawn, while exploring cloud forests in the San Martin region of Northern Peru, biologist Arnaud Martin remarks on interconnectedness and the hidden complexity of nature.
A tiny peak inside the Oregon State Arthropod collection with curator and biologist Chris Marshall.
With ~3 million specimens, the OSAC is the largest entomological research collection in the Pacific Northwest and the largest repository collection of Pacific Northwest insects in the world.
Duo pieces for violin and English horn, clarinet, koto, tenor saxophone, cello, contrabass clarinet, and percussion.
Duo pieces for
Violin and clarinet
Violin and cello
Violin and English horn
Violin and percussion
Violin and koto
Violin and tenor saxophone
Violin and bass
Violin and contrabass clarinet