Letters, postcards, envelopes, notebooks, sketchbooks, textbooks, advertisements, tickets, lists, reports, documents, blueprints, newspapers, maps, photographs, negatives, receipts, telegrams, certificates, carbon papers...

TILL is a digital generative collage by David Cass – produced in collaboration with Sam Healy – which traces 130 years of Arctic summer sea-ice loss, informed by real data: from 19th-century ship-logs to contemporary satellite readings.

Through thousands of scanned and animated antique papers, the piece reflects on the impact of human activity across the last century on one of our Earth’s most vulnerable regions: the Arctic.

Summer Arctic sea-ice melt is often assessed as a distinct indicator of climate change – a microcosm of the broader crisis. Its seasonal decline offers a focussed lens through which to understand global warming’s pace and impact.

In this digital artwork, light papers represent sea-ice coverage; and dark papers represent expanding sea.

Focus your attention on the centre of the screen, where date-stamps taken from found papers are arranged as markers, charting the years passing.

The visual language draws from Cass’s long-standing practice of working with found ephemera to explore environmental change.

Presented during this year’s Tall Ships Races, Till serves as both archive and elegy.