Schmilz, schmilz Baby! Open Futurelab 2024; photo: Bettina Gangl

Schmilz, schmilz, Baby!

Melt This!

Schmilz, schmilz, Baby! / Melt This! is a thought-provoking campaign on glacier retreat by the activist artist group Aggro Climate, members of the Ars Electronica Futurelab. The initiative is one of the two winning projects of the Ars Electronica Futurelab 2024 internal ideas competition Ideas Expedition.

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The ice age is over – at least in terms of Alpine glaciers that are estimated to lose around 91% of surface and 94% of mass by 2100. According to the Alpine Association, the tipping point of glacier melting has been reached and in about 45 years Austria could be ice-free. While scientists are brainstorming geoengineering inventions to prevent massive glaciers like those in Antarctica from collapsing and causing sea levels to rise rapidly, smaller areas like Austria will face the challenge of adapting to new ecosystems after the melting of a glacier. The climate awareness activist group Aggro Climate therefore addressed the transformative potential of post-glacial landscapes and how these public lands can be utilized democratically by future generations. 

Schmilz, schmilz, Baby! / Melt This! served as a call to citizens via an over-the-top campaign by Aggro Climate to participate in the process of shaping post-glacial future narratives for Austria’s biggest glacier Pasterze. A campaign video conveyed arguments to citizens about the glacier melt, and simultaneously invited them to participate in a bittersweet competition, using generative AI applications to submit their coolest ideas for after the melt of Pasterze. 

The winner with the best idea, Anouk Reiterer with “Schönbrunn x Alpenkitsch”, was announced during the Futurelab Night 2024. The hyperbolic message of Aggro Climate in Schmilz, schmilz, Baby! / Melt This! is to radically accept our self-induced fate and instead of provoking panic in society in times of climate change, we need to give people from all corners of society a voice for a transformational dialog about future environments. 

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This project was part of the Open Futurelab at the Ars Electronica Festival 2024.

Credits

Ars Electronica Futurelab: Alexandre Bizri, Denise Hirtenfelder, Nicolas Naveau, Maria Pfeifer

Schmilz, schmilz, Baby! / Melt This! is a winner project of the Ars Electronica Futurelab Ideas Expedition 2024

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