Chapter 7

“Sonic Antarctica” features natural and industrial field recordings, sonifications and audifications of science data and interviews with weather and climate scientists. The areas recorded include: the “Dry Valleys” (77°30’S 163°00’E) on the shore of McMurdo Sound, 3,500 km due south of New Zealand, the driest and largest relatively ice-free area on the continent completely devoid of terrestrial vegetation. Another is the geographic South Pole (90°00’S), the center of a featureless flat white expanse, on top of ice nearly 1.7 miles thick.

The “Sonic Antarctica” Project is a radio broadcast, live performance as well as a sound and visual installation. It features recordings of the Antarctic soundscape made during Andrea Polli’s seven-week National Science Foundation residency in Antarctica during the 2007/2008 season.

The Antarctic is unlike any other place on earth: geographically, politically and culturally. Larger than the US, it is a frontier where borders and nationalities take a back seat to scientific collaboration and cooperation, a place where the compass becomes meaningless, yet, navigation is a matter of life and death. It is an extreme environment that holds some of the most unique species. But it is also an ecosystem undergoing rapid change. 2007/2008 marks the fourth International Polar Year (IPY), the largest and most ambitious international effort to investigate the impact of the poles on the global environment.

As an artist, Andrea Polli works with digital media. She has exhibited, lectured, and performed nationally and internationally. Polli’s projects often bring together artists and scientists from various disciplines. She is interested in global systems and their effects on individuals. She also works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate information through sound, a process called sonification.

Tracklist

1] Round Mountain 5:03
Helicopters and radios around Williams Field and the Dry Valleys

2] Taylor Glacier 7:59
Voices: Hassan Basagic, Dr. Andrew Fountain, Dr. John Cassano, Jonathan Tham; Taylor Glacier weather station data 2007 compiled by Hassan Basagic of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Project; Automatic Weather Station (AWS) maintenance at Windless Bight

3] Walking on Taylor Glacier 3:22

4] No Boundaries 14:55
Voices: Dr. Adam Lewis, Dr. Sharon Collinge, Larry McDaniel, Dr. Andreas Fischlin; South Pole weather balloon sounding data from The Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) Project, University of Wisconsin, Madison

5] Countdown 10:32
Voices: Victoria Sankovic, Andy Clarke, Phil Austin; South Pole weather balloon launch, NOAA tropospheric ozone balloon data stream, LDB (long duration balloon) launch

6] Cape Royds 1:38
An Adelie penguin rookery

7] A Model is a Cartoon 5:50
Voices: Dr. Andreas Fischlin, Dr. Peter Doran, Dr. Wolfgang Rack; Antarctic ice acceleration data from Slawek Tulaczyk and Jake Walter of UC Santa Cruz

8] Castle Rock 3:32

9] I Don’t Have the Data 15:01
Voices: Dr. Andreas Fischlin, Dr. Peter Doran, Larry Mcdaniel, Dr. Wolfgang Rack, Dr. Adam Lewis; McMurdo station balloon sounding data from The Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) Project, University of Wisconsin, Madison

10] Lake Hoare 1:12

Images

Sonic Antarctica 1

Sonic Antarctica 2

Sonic Antarctica 3

Sonic Antarctica 4

Sonic Antarctica 5

Sonic Antarctica 6

Sonic Antarctica 7