MOTION TO CHILL

​​​​​​The Mover affirms that the requested glacial relations are not intended for fraudulent purposes and serve a legitimate interest. We acknowledge ourselves as glacial beings who practice glacial withness at a time when seven of nine planetary boundaries have been breached. 

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To subvert status-quo institutional hegemony and speciesism, we propose glacial communication be formally adopted as official languages in locations where glaciers still exist. Learning glacial communication may begin with the mouth. Through inflows and outflows, we interconnect our water bodies. Through the pronunciation of human-language signifiers (მყინვარი, mto wa barafu, buzul, 冰川, ਗਲੇਸ਼ੀਅਰ, ghiacciaio, glaciar, glaciär, glacier, gletscher, глечер, हिमनद, hatun chullunku, isbreen, 氷河, jökull, ཁ་ ད, kōpaka, ledenik, یخچال طبیعی, ледник, мөңгү, мөсөн гол, пирях, گلیشیر, sermeq, ᐊᐅᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ), we voice an encodement of centuries-long human-glacier relations. Repetition strengthens our familiarity but also estranges us from each word’s semantic halo. As we inhabit the collection of phonemes and morphemes, exploring their choreographies within our bodies, we recall our own experiences with glaciers and conjure ecological knowledges through each utterance and iteration.

This Motion furthermore asserts that steps should be taken to implement more-than-human deliberative assemblies where more-than-human entities are not represented by humans who speak on their behalf, but rather where more-than-human entities are afforded their own political voices through their situated signals. Such an assembly, heretofore referred to as a Þing, should occur outside of the Room, or at least with all windows of the Room thrown open. For glacial beings, a Jöklaþing would be a suitable name for a deliberative assembly on any matters impacting humans and more-than-humans.

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