The River Rail brings together artists, scientists, and writers concerned with environmental issues and climate change.
Produced as part of the exhibition “Occupy Colby: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy, Year 2”, organized by Rail Curatorial Projects and the Colby Museum of Art.
A Message from the Publisher
Phong Bui on the radical intersection of artists, scientists, poets, and scholars in Waterville, Maine.
Why Occupy Colby
Sharon Corwin, Director and Chief Curator at the Colby Museum, and Lee Glazer, director of the Lunder Institute, on the impetus of this iteration of the River Rail.
Making the Unseen Seen
Drilling ice cores in the frozen Antarctic, as described by geochemist and paleoclimatologist Bess Koffman.
Works in the Exhibition
Featuring Lauren Bon, Katherine Bradford, David Brooks, Mel Chin, Mark Dion, Justin Brice Guariglia, Maya Lin, Alexis Rockman, Clifford Ross, Allyson Vieira, and Meg Webster.
Occupy Colby: Symposium
A conversation between Phong Bui, Occupy Colby exhibiting artists Alexis Rockman and Allyson Vieira, and Colby scholars Denise Bruesewitz and Keith Peterson.
Notes from the Arctic and Other Places
From the Neolithic Orkney islands and ancient Rome to the High Arctic, sculptor Bradley Borthwick reflects on architectural ruins and glacial forms.
This Moment
Storyteller and cultural geographer Carolyn Finney imagines a present where diverse forces come together to create a more sustainable world. This is her call to action.
The Dance
Fiction by Meghan Hurley
Queer Weather
Poetry by Arisa White
Can Harvesting Fog Help to Counteract Droughts and Human Displacement?
Kerill O'Neill speaks with Jamila Bargach, director of Dar Si Hmad, the largest functioning fog collection project in the world.
Wabanaki Waterways: A Curatorial Conversation
Kathleen Mundell and Jennifer Neptune speak with Diana Tuite, Katz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Algorithms in the Wild
Oceanographer Nick Record imagines algorithms as living, thinking organisms in the noosphere.
Atomic Shade, Uncene, Chain Reaction
Poetry by Kristin George Bagdanov
Revelation Desert Flow, “like corn in the night”
Poetry by Samia Rahimtoola
On Salt Creek: Flows of Rivers and Peoples
Combining lab work, trash gathering, and art making to tell a river's story. Featuring ecologists Timothy Hoellein and Denise Bruesewitz and author Mary Ellis Gibson.
When Ecosystem Recovery Hinges on History: Intergenerational Memory and Marine Conservation
How many fish should you catch on an afternoon fishing trip? Marine ecologist Loren McClenachan thinks about the shifting baselines in our perception of recovery and change.
Reflections on Climate as Keyword and Shape-Shifting Noun
What does “climate” mean? Professor Jim Fleming argues that it deserves to be a keyword in the vocabulary of culture and society.
Imagining a Flooded Planet
Christopher Walker in conversation with science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson about the role of optimism and speculation in ecological writing.
Data at the Dawn of the Anthropocene
How is passive observation used to predict and ultimately control nature? Author Aaron R. Hanlon weaves a historical account.
Abandoned Spaces
A taxonomical walk through liminal spaces with eco-scientist Justin Becknell.
Singing History and Finding Hope
In a barn in Wisconsin, Ben Theyerl maps a history of environmental crisis and displacement in old bluegrass standards.
