CD – Gruenrekorder
The Antarctic, an area larger than the United States, is an extremely important factor in the climate outcome of the entire planet. Blinding whiteness and endless expanses of ice are the predominant features of this landscape. It also generates the sense of being a ‘strong’ yet ‘neutral’ natural environment. Being a relatively undisputed territory, it provides many possibilities for study, collaboration and cooperation among scientists. The “borders” between territories, that in the rest of the world are defined by authorities, here are naturally defined by survival possibilities. Artists, too, have found the Antarctic a charming place, often being inspired by the ‘iciness’ and the ‘downgrading’, which implies similar geographical conditions. Andrea Polli goes far beyond: her tracks are not only field recordings of natural areas, but also sonifications of scientific data, extrapolated from weather station reports. These tracks are assemblies that include interviews with those involved (basically climatologists). The work gives space to purely aesthetic notions and to environmental concerns. Polli alludes to the radio-broadcast format but develops a new audio-based art with a genuinely scientific basis and an aesthetically dense style.