Arctic Contours: Northern Media, Canada and the Anthropocene

This dissertation is an analysis of imagery of the Canadian North which examines the geopolitics of landscape in light of climate change discourse. By bringing together a series of historical and contemporary works in distinct media, this project builds upon the geopolitics of representation and interrogates an ideology of visual media of the North as informed by traces of colonial relations. While the term 'Arctic' assumes a homogeneity that is not present in reality, dominant notions to that effect persist in popular and political culture, and thus it remains a discrete category. Although notions of the North and the Arctic assume a unifying singularity, the works considered here present counter-histories that reveal the complexity of Arctic representation in which aesthetic, cultural, and political interests become intertwined. These interrelations are articulated through a methodological analysis over three chapters, each representing a 'contour,' which consider aspects of Arctic representation in such a way that does not ignore systemic histories and processes of dispossession. Contours serve as a metaphor for discussing these distinct areas of inquiry by indicating permeable boundaries but not necessarily delineating a hermetically resolved whole. \n \n\tThe first contour: in seeking to articulate Indigenous self-representation, certain historically situated, time-based, and lens-based media inform this project as ur-texts and are regarded as foundational; however, as proto-documentaries and early experiments in the medium of film, these early representations of the North serve as a basis from which Indigenous cultures reclaim media and come to self-represent unassailable culture and inalienable land. In examining how visual culture is implicated in practices of viewing and representing the circumpolar north, Indigenous perspectives remain front and center in representing non-extractive relations to land. The second contour engages with the production, circulation and interpretation of fictionalized images as key tropes in the critical analysis of contemporary Arctic representations. In particular, select contemporary works of Indigenous media and work by settlers that ally with Indigenous perspectives are discussed, as they run counter to capitalist extractive practices that have dominated social life and discourse over the last few hundred years. The third contour deals with the notion that although the circumpolar northern regions are geographically marginalized, negative effects of climate change there are palpable and incontrovertible. Given that climate change is most readily apparent in the North and that artefacts of visual culture are no longer restricted to representations that are purposely made for visual pleasure, this contour seeks to develop a critical mechanism that approaches a visual culture of the Anthropocene. This third area of concern operates with the understanding that the term 'Anthropocene' embodies a problematic that implicates all humans, as opposed to those who unleashed the climate catastrophe, and, as well, that climate change is experienced differentially depending on global location. It concludes by suggesting another term, the Ecozoic, which encompasses Indigenous perspectives, instead of the Anthropocene, which has reached a critical mass in recent times. Each of these three contours of Arctic media becomes intertwined variously with industry, geopolitics and the politics of representation. \n \n\tThis dissertation is informed by a variety of methodologies including historical materialism, cultural studies, and postcolonial thought. In addition, visual culture studies, which forms a part of the interdisciplinary field of communication, figures prominently. Visual culture (stemming from art history) examines representation through social, political, and theoretical contexts. In particular, the recent work of visual culture studies scholar and activist Nicholas Mirzoeff suggests that we examine media texts by seeking what is not permitted to be observed and rather that we endeavour to articulate systemic structures that support what is allowed to be made visible and what remains invisible. As well, Jacques Rancire's dissensus, a mode that is dictated by the ideological framework of late-capitalism and strives to break down the way reality is constructed, underpins this body of work. By deploying these perspectives in this particular way, this dissertation enables the media texts discussed within each contour to be understood as representative of certain typologies, which have purchase in the geopolitics of representation and that serve to interrogate ideologies of the visual media of the North.

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