The Life and Legacy of the Athabasca Glacier
Immersive Installation | Interactive Media | Environmental Storytelling | CGI Animation | Houdini Procedural | AI & MCP
An immersive, three-part exhibition tracing the life and transformation of the Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada. Combining climate research, moving imagery, sound, and interactive installations, the experience invites visitors to consider how a landscape formed over thousands of years can change within a single human lifetime.
The Life and Legacy of the Athabasca Glacier is an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, artists, and designers from the University of Waterloo and creative partners, featuring photography by Guardians of the Ice.
Across three immersive chapters, visitors experience the glacier's story over approximately 10,000 years. A disappearing moulin—an opening carved into the ice by flowing meltwater—visualizes its retreat, while environmental imagery and sound connect geological timescales to the urgency of present-day climate change.
The journey culminates in an interactive glacial-water sculpture, inviting visitors to leave a personal message to the glacier. The installation transforms scientific understanding into a shared moment of memory, reflection, and responsibility.
For Chapter II, I created the entire large-scale CGI animation centered on the glacier's disappearing moulin, bringing its monumental ice formations and gradual transformation to life.
The sequence was developed primarily through procedural workflows in Houdini, integrating AI-assisted processes and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools into the production pipeline to streamline complex scene generation, creative iteration, and animation.
Exhibition:
May 14–16, 2026 | The Artery Gallery, University of Waterloo, Canada
Collaboration:
University of Waterloo interdisciplinary team, multimedia collaborators, and Guardians of the Ice.
Official Coverage:
University of Waterloo — Interactive exhibit explores legacy of the Athabasca Glacier
Across three immersive chapters, visitors experience the glacier's story over approximately 10,000 years. A disappearing moulin—an opening carved into the ice by flowing meltwater—visualizes its retreat, while environmental imagery and sound connect geological timescales to the urgency of present-day climate change.
The journey culminates in an interactive glacial-water sculpture, inviting visitors to leave a personal message to the glacier. The installation transforms scientific understanding into a shared moment of memory, reflection, and responsibility.
For Chapter II, I created the entire large-scale CGI animation centered on the glacier's disappearing moulin, bringing its monumental ice formations and gradual transformation to life.
The sequence was developed primarily through procedural workflows in Houdini, integrating AI-assisted processes and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools into the production pipeline to streamline complex scene generation, creative iteration, and animation.
Exhibition:
May 14–16, 2026 | The Artery Gallery, University of Waterloo, Canada
Collaboration:
University of Waterloo interdisciplinary team, multimedia collaborators, and Guardians of the Ice.
Official Coverage:
University of Waterloo — Interactive exhibit explores legacy of the Athabasca Glacier