A mini version of a life-sized travelling installation is being prepared to send to Mawson station, Antarctica, for people to immerse themselves in animated art and data to celebrate the arrival and departure of whales in summer, and to contribute to mid-winter solstice celebrations.
What will go to Mawson?
A model of the Living Data Immersible will go to Mawson with a mini installation of creatures and a data projector for playing animations of scientific data and artistic expressions of relationship.
The packed installation will be less than 7kg and no more than 56 cm x 36 cm x 23 cm.
The installation package will conform to Australian aircraft limits for hand luggage.
Package
contents:
Model of
Living Data Immersible sea urchin / meeting house,
37cm
x 26cm x 17cm
‘Smart Mini projector’, power chords, instruction manual, batteries
‘Chock’ (cards bound in blue Gaffa tape) for raising projector to angle to model screen
6 x wooden blocks to serve as miniature plinths
6 x paper sculptures to place on plinths: Algae, Fish, Snake, Bird, Krill, Whale
A4 information and activity package
Memory stick of animations created by artists, scientists and animation students (Working titles only – Titles and Program notes in progress)::
AntarcticEnergies
AntarcticWhaleWarning
ARCA-Voices-of-the-Ocean
ConsumerismAndTheSea_by Quince Franks
FollowWhale
Humans-and-the-Ocean-Victor
HumpbackWhaleSong-Brian-Miller
KrillSex
LensOnWhales
NICO_VoicesOfTheOcean
Patrick_Voices of the ocean
Shirin
Why?
The aim of the installation is to inspire Antarctic expeditioners and young people around the world to share their stories of relationship to nature, through their personal explorations through art and science. Animations and puppet creatures are being provided for entertainment, and to entice Antarctic Winterers to create their own stories, photos and videos, for feeding back into the project by uploading onto the Living Data Facebook page. Our hope is that responses from Antarctic expeditioners will inspire and inform young people who participate in ‘Seeding Treaties: Voices from the Southern Ocean’ presentations and workshops.
What can expeditioners show and tell us about how people and other creatures co-habit Antarctica? What of their experience of the arrival and departure of whales? What similaries and differences do they know of, between people and other creatures of Antarctic land, sea and air?
The mini installation at Mawson will signify the start of the three-year travelling project, where animated installations, presentations and workshops will give voice to creatures of the Southern Ocean and their relatives on land: Algae, Fish, Snake, Bird, Krill, Whale. The project is led by the Whale journey known through Aboriginal dreaming stories and Western science, and will culminate in 2022 with the pulication of the IPCC Report leading into the Global Stocktake of countries meeting the Paris Climate Agreement:
Inspired by the Antarctic Treaty, our understanding is that treaties are agreements people make to live well together.
When?
Matthew Williams, 2020 Mawson Station Leader, leaves for Antarctica on the Aurora Australis on Tuesday 21 Jan. Matthew will come to Sydney to collect things for the voyage and he has offered to take the package with him as hand luggage on the plane to Hobart, leaving Sydney by 14th Jan at the latest. I am planning to draw krill at the AAD around 21 Jan, and so another option is for me to bring the installation from Sydney at that time.
How?
Instructions for playing the mini data projector are supplied.
A booklet for telling stories, noting observations, and responses to animations will be supplied along with patterns for creating puppet creatures.
A flyer will be provided that outlines the ‘Living Data Seeding Treaties’ project, including guidance on uploading contributions to the Living Data web site (link to be supplied).