The terrifying face of a new sublime

• Autores: Sumit Paul-Choudhury
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3080, 2016, págs. 44-45
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • It is forbidden by law to die of natural causes in Longyearbyen, the world's northernmost town--because the rock-hard permafrost makes it impossible to bury people. Nor can they be born here, due to the peculiar legal status of the Svalbard archipelago, a thousand kilometers north of Norway. Forty-two nations, including the unlikely Arctic powers of Afghanistan and Venezuela, have the right to settle and exploit its resources: from whales in the 18th century, to furs in the 19th and coal in the 20th. Now, with coal on its way out, Svalbard is presenting itself as a location for scientific research, ecotourism and the arts. As such it may find itself at the nexus of a new global reality. Here, Paul-Choudbury discusses a hunt for aesthetics in the Arctic that hints people should unfreeze an 18-century concept.