Artist installs phone link to dying glacier

The creaking and splashing sounds of Europe's largest glacier slipping into an ocean grave are just a phone call away now that an artist has installed a microphone in its surrounding waters.

Glaswegian artist Katie Paterson was moved to set up the line after hallucinating about Iceland's giant Vatnajokull glacier during a bout of fever.

The link encourages people to connect emotionally with the glacier, she said from her tent on the Icelandic shoreline.

"It is really poetic: a river of ice slowly disintegrating, quite discreetly, quite invisibly. Sheets of ice are constantly slipping off, huge bits cracking, moving very slowly. It is sad to see a vanishing world."



With the help of sponsors, Paterson was able to drop a hydrophone into the icy lagoon where the glacier is disappearing and pick up the sounds. The waterproof microphone is linked to a phone and amplifier housed in a tent on land.

The work, entitled "Vatnajokull (the sound of)", will continue until June 13.

Only one caller at a time can get through, which was deliberate so people can have a "one-to-one beautiful and intimate moment" with the glacier, she said.

Calls to the number, 07758 225698, are charged at international rates.