Partial Views: Entangling Toronto and Arctic Narratives Through Research-Creation

Candidate: Andrew Bateman, Communication and Culture PhD

This research-creation dissertation reframes Toronto as an Arctic landscape, revealing how the city’s policies, economies, and cultures are deeply entwined with the Arctic’s most pressing challenges. Rather than focusing solely on the Arctic’s downstream issues, it investigates the upstream systems shaping Arctic realities through nine case studies. These explore connections between Toronto and the Arctic via rabies strains, migratory birds, invasive species, urban planning, financial investments, satellite technology, and more—showing how Toronto’s actions ripple into Arctic ecologies and politics. Combining scientific research, critical theory, media analysis, and documentary practices, the work asks: “How does a distant city shape Arctic realities?” It argues that understanding Toronto is key to rethinking global environmental and socio-political crises. The accompanying photographic practice uses experimental methods to challenge dominant Arctic imagery, engaging Timothy Morton’s concept of “hyperobjects” and Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s call to “hospice modernity.” By embracing complexity and partial perspectives, the dissertation reframes Toronto and the Arctic as co-constitutive landscapes, offering new ways of seeing and engaging with urgent planetary concerns.

Keywords: research-creation, Arctic studies, urban ecology, colonialism, environmental justice, visual culture