Antarctic Circles

A collaboration between artists Adele Jackson and Lucy Bergman. Songs, sculptural books and photographs inspired by the Antarctic Treaty.

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The exhibition is up!

http://www.barbican.org.uk/library/event-detail.asp?ID=18643

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An exhibition of songs, photographs and sculptural books by artists Adele Jackson and Lucy Bergman.

The exhibition is up and open

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...And whilst everyone else is asleep, Karl and Joe are secretly working on the music of Antarctica!

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Paper pulp sculpt. Here's a miniature version of the Antarctic Treaty all wrapped up in its very own paper pulp snow sphere box.

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Ice Core Message Cylinder experiments.

Paleo-climate scientists drill down into the Antarctic ice sheet to take samples of ice. The ice is extracted in cylindrical cores. The cores can date as far back as 800,000 years.

Air bubbles are trapped in the ice when the ice crystals compact as the snow accumulates. These bubbles can be analysed to information about the air temperature, climate and atmospheres of years past.

I’ve been using casting resin, glass tubes, poetry and metal canisters to explore a visual language to reference the ice core analysis; the stories held within the ice; and the message cylinders left by early polar explorers to communicate with the outside world through those who followed their path.

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Doing a bit of thinking about the on-disc design for the CD, image courtesy of Adele naturally...

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Recording Day with Karl!

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Mock up of Antarctic Colour Swatch

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Under the Ice

I was supposed to meet with my guitar tutor yesterday with the hope of getting the music for my whale song sorted. Unfortunately he had to cancel and so I was left to pace around the house fretting about getting my music finished on time. Attempting to distract myself from my feelings of stress and worry I sat down at the Dulcitone to noodle around with a few half-formed ideas. 

I started to put together a song inspired by a documentary I watched on Youtube called Under the Antarctic Ice, about a group of underwater photographers capturing the incredible world under the ice shelves. It is teeming with pulsating life under there. So many creatures and plant life of vibrant colours and complex physiology, a world unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a place so cold that it’s hard to imagine it could be so alive.

The broken Dulcitone was the perfect instrument to channel some of the otherworldly-ness of life under the ice, although nothing I could write could really ever capture the beauty.

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Antarctic Colour Swatches hot off the printing press. With huge thanks to the super professional Andy Price, Managing and Creative Director of &company www.and-company.co.uk

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beesandbombs:

Thinking in circles...

Just a bit of fun. I love the beesandbombs blog.

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Polar explorers used copper and brass cylindrical containers to leave messages either for their expedition team, their rescuers or future expedition teams to find. The cylinders would withstand the weather conditions and keep the message inside safe. The message cylinders are the inspiration for the designs of a series of books for the exhibition.

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Reinventing the whale

Interesting and fairly depressing article by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation society re: the current state of affairs for the whale. I never imagined this was still going on...

http://uk.whales.org/reinventing-whale

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The ice crystal collection

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Hexagonal Plate: the first ice crystal book is finished! The shape and formation of ice crystals varies depending on temperature and humidity. The drier, colder climate in Antartica is suited to producing solid hexagonal plates and prisms. Intricate patterned crystals occur in wetter conditions. Ice crystals morph into new shapes as the temperature and humidity change.