What is antarcticanimation.com?
In 2002 (V7) I went to Davis, Mawson and the Amery Ice Shelf as an Antarctic Arts Fellow. I met my partner on the ship, and moved to Sydney from Tasmania to join him. I noticed how few people in this big city knew about Antarctica, or of Australia’s presence there. Least of all did they know it’s role in our changing climate. In Antarctica I had been moved by the profound connections people can have with its landscape. Now I seek ways to connect people here with there.
Seeing Antarctica with my own eyes challenged my notion of landscape as a framed place. It inspired instead objects and animations of a world on the move, to be viewed from more than one angle. Antarctica’s thrusting nunataks, plunging crevasses, and endless ice dome circled by sea, makes for a place in the round; a sphere we’re just at the edges of knowing. Still more of a space than a place, Antarctica demands more dimensions to describe.
Animation, the visual language of change, can evoke points of connection between changes in the landscape as revealed through scientific data, and changes experienced within those who live and work there. Animation can be used to accurately reflect graphical and numerical data. When used as an art medium however, it can lead you places unimagined and unexpected, evoking the disorientation of Antarctica’s dearth of visual reference points. Its landscape plays with your senses, shifting between the known and the unknown, the measured and the imagined. Animation allows scientific and imagined perspectives to overlap and intersect, to engage us more deeply with the data. Words of expeditioners can suggest gestures of disorientation.
Here, satellite images of ice extent over a year intersect with individual responses to changes experienced on the ground. Scientific data can anchor experience in fact.
A chance encounter with ANARExpeditioner Jack Ward set me on a new line of inquiry: to visualize connections between changes in the landscape observed through the scientific (often mechanical) eye, and the aesthetic responses of individuals involved in measuring the changes. Jack had led me to Fred Elliott. Through Jack’s prose and Fred’s drawings, a year of landscape change around Mawson is revealed. Animating in response to their work sets up a dialogue between us, reflecting our different experiences of this place, at different times.
An interesting and timely question is, “How can the aesthetic connections that some have made to the Antarctic landscape add meaning to the scientific data they collect”? A useful proposition for an artist wanting to contribute to climate change awareness is that “animation can reveal the aesthetic connections some have made to the Antarctic landscape, and add meaning to the scientific data they have collected”.
Dr Karin Beaumont is a marine biologist who has researched the role of zooplanktons in the carbon cycle. Her aesthetic response to the Antarctic environment led her to create wearable sculptures, as “a call to protect the magnificent diversity of life in our oceans that is vital to the function of our world.” (Beaumont, 2006).
Her “Threatened Treasure” depicts a Sea Butterfly, under threat from excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. She shows us how the creature is structured, weaving wire to simulate its faceted shell, and coloured titanium to simulate the blue of the ocean seen through its transparent body. Her artwork adds depth to our understanding of the science by engaging us with her knowledge on an an aesthetic level. Animating her Sea Butterfly contributes to her work in bringing us closer to the landscape she has measured and observed.
After meeting Bernadette Hince, I was inspired by her Antarctic Dictionary to build an on-line visual Thesaurus.
This site is now ready for expeditioners to share their different perspectives of Antarctica. As ANARE members, your words and images can help connect us with the changes that are happening there. You speak with authority, through your physical connections with Antarctica, and with the scientific work being done there. Can you describe a moment in the ice? Can you explain something you know about, that is changing in Antarctica? Do you have visual evidence of changes your have measured, seen, or experienced? Did being in Antarctica change you in some way? If you can contribute, or are willing to be interviewed, please contact me:
02 9550 2805
www.lisaroberts.com.au
And you can Reply directly to this Post below.
Article for publication in the ANARE Club magazine, Aurora
Thursday, October 25, 2007