Sonic Antarctica | Andrea Polli
Gruen 064 | Audio CD (Digipack) > [order]
„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 expance, 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 currently works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate information through sound, a process called sonification.
She recently spent seven weeks in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation funded project www.90degreessouth.org. The investigation of storms as wel as of the heat and the heartbeat of New York has been among her earlier projects. For this and related work, she has been recognized by the UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003. www.andreapolli.com
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
10 Tracks (69′05″)
CD (500 copies)
EXHIBITION + PRESENTATION – Sonic Antarctica
April 17-May 17, 2009
EXHIBITION: Sonic Antarctica in Deep Green at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen Denmark curated by Sebastian Schioerring and Camilla Berner
May 13-16, 2009
FESTIVAL AND EXHIBITION: Several works by Polli in the Futuresonic Urban Festival of Art, Music and Ideas featuring world premiers of artworks, a city-wide music programme, and visionary thinkers from around the world. An urban festival experience, it is anticipated that over 50,000 festival visitors will engage with 300 artists and 100 events across 30 venues. CUBE Gallery, Manchester UK.
October 15, 2008- April 17, 2009
EXHIBITION + PRESENTATION: transmediale 2009, Berlin, exhibition DEEP NORTH features Polli’s Sonic Antarctica, and the transmediale.09 conference ‚Making / Thinking: The Cultural Tomorrow‘ features Polli’s Ground Truth.
July 13-August 9, 2009
PRESENTATION: Sonic Antarctica presented in Megalópolis sonoras (identidad cultural y sonidos en peligro de extinción) For
© 2008 Andrea Polli – www.andreapolli.com
engineered at Harvestworks, New York City by Leslie Lavelanet
Supported (in part) by the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program and The PSC-CUNY Research Foundation
Artwork by Tobias Schmitt – www.acrylnimbus.de using – photos by Andrea Polli
Soundscape Series by Gruenrekorder
Gruenrekorder | Germany | 2009 | Gruen 064 | LC 09488 | EAN 4260176216865
Tom Sekowski – Salty Swift | Flashes of Timeless Joy
German experimental label Gruenrekorder continues to put out some fine releases that go that extra mile to document the sounds of our dying planet. […]
Moving from one pole to the other, we find ourselves in the midst of “Sonic Antarctica”. Recorded by Andrea Polli, the disc is a living document of some of the scientists that live there for extended periods of time. But this isn’t just pure field recordings. According to the album jacket, the album “features natural and industrial field recordings, sonifications and audifications of science data and interviews with weather and climate scientists.” Complete with brisk winds, crackling ice, what we have on offer are talks by scientists on weather conditions and life in Antarctic. “I Don’t Have the Data” features a number of these scientists discussing how crucial it is for science to have a role in saving the eco-system of the ice-covered continent, while winds billow in the background. “Countdown” has a different set of scientists discussing their love of their jobs, interaction with elements and their fascination with weather patterns. All the while, Andrea Polli creates a rough-sounding snow storm that encapsulates the conversation. “No Boundaries” features more clicks and high-pitched short-wave radio signals that are meshed with further confessions from the scientists. If anything, “Sonic Antarctica” serves as a day-in-the-life of scientists working persistently on this cold, cruel continent. […]
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Gruenrekorder @ The 25 Best Winter Albums of All Time / a closer listen
Andrea Polli ~ Sonic Antarctica (Gruenrekorder, 2008)
[…] Sonic Antarctica is an album that sounds like a soundtrack and unfurls like a film: a fluid combination of tones, field recordings and interviews with the weather station personnel of the South Pole. Polli begins with a helicopter ride and slowly descends into a world of glaciers and sub-zero readings. By the end, we’ve not only been entertained, but enlightened. The album now brings us to the first of three Winter Music Spotlights!
Winter Music Spotlight: The Gruenrekorder Label
For field recordings, Gruenrekorder is the one to beat. The sheer breadth of their scope is remarkable. Other winter-related albums on the label include Dogs from the snowy country (Finnish sled dogs, recorded by Lasse-Marc Riek), Luminarskuu (Finnish snow walk soundscapes, again by Lasse-Marc Riek), Finnish Snow Walks and Dances (field recordings and songs from various artists), Fire and Frost Pattern (half ice, half volcanos from Andreas Bick), Antarctica (field recordings by Craig Vear, originally part of a DVD/CD set), Swiss Mountain Transport Systems (cable cars and chair lifts, recorded by Ernst Karel), and The Sound of Snow and Ice (Various Artists). Some of the early releases are sold out and some are only available in digital form, but we expect many more! […]
Agostino Scafidi | agostinoscafidi.com
Whenever I hear or see the words “field recording” I get a little tinge of excitement. It fills me with wonder and interest to discover what might lay in store for me in such a piece of music (or non-music, if you prefer). […]
This isn’t on bandcamp but there is a detailed description of this work along with a few samples right here. This is a special album because not only does it contain some impressive soundscapes, but it also contains some spoken word / interview type infusions by various scientists and climate experts. The topics they discuss are very down to earth, which might surprise you coming from people of science, but this is also a preconception specifically addressed. Some people may view science in a harsh light, but the talks you hear bring forth a much more human point of view. Yes, the sounds you’ll hear have been captured mainly from the south pole. The description goes into more detail about this. I recommend this very interesting work.
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Massimo Ricci | TEMPORARY FAULT
Quoting from her website’s biographic notes, Polli – a woman gifted with an impressive curriculum vitae, go check yourselves – „works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storms and climate through sound (called sonification)“. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that this is another audible documentary, though quite different from what I had expected having read the title. In fact, the large part of this disc is taken by the above mentioned scientists speaking about lots of things (all of them related to the central theme, of course) and the inner reasons for what they do (moral obligations, role of the scientist versus the community, you get the picture). The verbal material is mainly interspersed by the continuous irregular pulse of the electronic signals that come from various weather stations placed in the explored areas, and – very infrequently – other types of sound such as walking on a glacier, the inside of helicopters in flight, radios and even a short snippet featuring penguins. Therefore be warned: this is more a spoken record than a collection of Antarctic sounds. An interesting listen from an intellectual point of view; a little less in terms of power of evocation elicited by field recordings. But, ultimately, it’s indubitably a sincerely purposed mission.
Sonic Antarctica is like no other release I have ever heard: it comes across like a documentary film without the visuals. Confused? So was I at first, but as it washed over me I fell in love with it.
The artist, Andrea Polli, travelled to Antarctica and there made many field recordings and interviewed any number of scientists. The album therefore unfolds, like any good documentary, with the artful juxtaposition of the wild natural environment and the thoughts and reflections of the scientists who conduct all manner of research in the Antarctic’s unique environment.
Thus we find ourselves immersed in recordings of the freezing and razor-sharp southern winds; out in the field with researchers on the barren ice and earth (the cold air almost snatching their words from their mouths); and hearing the sounds of local fauna such as penguins.
As with a conventional documentary, there is also music on the release, generally quite simple and atmospheric drone/ambient elements which drift through the mix sparsely but appropriately.
This makes for a curious experience – this is an audio CD in which the presence of music seems surprising or unusual! I enjoyed this inversion of convention and expectation.
Of course the really fascinating and brilliant part of this CD is hearing, in their own words and voices, what these frontier scientific pioneers of Antarctica have to say for themselves. Antarctica is a great place for weather research, geology, biology and especially climate change research (and I’m sure other disciplines too).
The impression that this release paints is that these researchers are a hardy and adventurous lot, stoic, humorous and committed whole-heartedly to the purest ideals of scientific research. These are people will to spend vast portions of their lives in one of the most forbidding places on earth in order to advance human knowledge.
Thus I loved, for example, a geologist’s tongue in cheek explanation about how geology is the true prince of the sciences. With cock-eyed logic he claims to be able to reduce biology and even the ever-vaunted physics to being nothing more than addendums, appendices, to the true and overlooked master-science of geology.
It’s pretty hilarious to know that scientists, especially ones so devoted to their work, can make fun of themselves. In general society science is seen as such a serious, straight-laced, stodgy and boring business.
This CD humanises these folk quite beautifully and I really enjoyed the contrast between the warmth of the interviewees and the frigid realm in which they work.
But the real power comes toward the end of the CD, when researchers talk about politics and the science of climate change.
They express their dismay that all their hard work, their determination, sincerity and rigour, can be attacked, trivialised and dismissed in the political arena so easily and with so little concern for truth or consequence.
This is the telling point of this release: that here, in perhaps the coldest place on earth, researchers still feel the political heat for revealing the inconvenient truth of global warming.
It is really powerful to hear their personal perspectives on this issue because these are perhaps the only people on the planet who have a full appreciation of the problem.
I rather wish that every myopic legislator in the world were forced to listen to this release – it might just convince them to follow their conscience and the overwhelming evidence for once and not just obey the money of similarly short-sighted vested interests.
I am not sure who this album would appeal to and you certainly cannot treat it like almost any other release I’ve ever heard. However I feel much richer for having listened to it and I encourage you to check it out if my review at all piques your curiosity.
Tobias Bolt | quietnoise
Der Einstieg ist perfekt gewählt, erzeugt enorme Wirkung: ein fünfminütiger Mitschnitt aus lokalem Helikopterfunkverkehr vermittelt auf ganz eigene Art Entlegenheit und Unwirklichkeit dieser Gegend, transportiert einen, zumindest klanglich, ans Ende der Welt. Für sieben Wochen war die Soundkünstlerin Andrea Polli im Zuge des 90 degrees south – Projekts in der Antarktis stationiert, daraus hervorgegangen ist eine Sound- und Videoinstallation sowie vorliegendes Album. Dieses ist ein recht ungewöhnlicher Mix, neben klassischen Field Recordings stehen vor allem so genannte Sonifications im Mittelpunkt. Dabei werden, vereinfacht ausgedrückt, wissenschaftliche Daten hörbar gemacht. Das geschieht mittels spezieller Algorithmen und Prozesse, als Ausgangsmaterial dienen Polli hier vor allem Wetterdaten. Dazwischen montiert sie Ausschnitte aus Interviews, die mit den vor Ort anwesenden Wissenschaftern geführt wurden.
So zeigt sich »Sonic Antarctica« gleich auf mehreren Wirkungsebenen erfolgreich. Klanglich wird die Charakterisierung der Umgebung mittels einer beinahe außerirdisch anmutenden Atmosphäre vorgenommen, vor allem die bereits angesprochenen Sonifications erweisen sich dabei als außerordentlich effektiv. Dass diese ursprünglich von und in der Natur selbst geformt wurden, schwingt hier selbstverständlich im Hintergrund mit, weist auf ein einzigartiges und fragiles Ökosystem hin. Eine punktuell hoch technisierte Wildnis, bei der erstaunt, dass überhaupt noch Menschen vor Ort benötigt werden – Andrea Polli räumt ihnen hier jedenfalls ausgiebig Platz ein. Die Forscher thematisieren mit Enthusiasmus und gelegentlichem Witz Klimawandel, wissenschaftliche Modelle und Methoden sowie die Geologie als Mutter jeglicher Naturforschung. Ergänzt wird das ganze durch Field Recordings, die von Pinguinkolonien und Gletscherwalks bis zu Wetterballonstarts reichen. Ein großartiges Album, das als Klanginstallation mit Bewusstseinsbildung unvergleichlich zwischen Natur und Technik balanciert.
Ed Pinsent | The Sound Projector
To keep yourself focused on the unbearably cold weather we’re having, you might try listening to Andrea Polli’s Sonic Antarctica (GRUENREKORDER GRUEN064). This quiet yet eventful CD of restrained digital ambience uses a combination of field recordings from that inhospitable realm of ice and frozen air, along with scientific data which has somehow been subjected to ’sonification and audification’. I think these are fancy terms for retranslating digital information from one format into an audio format, but the results are disciplined and this piece of chilling sound art is not without interest. Also layered in are snippets of interviews with soft-spoken and well-meaning American scientists who presumably work in these barren wastes collecting the data in the first place. To complete the overall effect, may I suggest you read the short story ‘Old Papa Johnson’ by Robert Graves. Not a bad CD which is reminiscent of the wind recordings made by BJ Nilsen, except he’s more interested in disguising and transforming the results.
Alyssa Perez | The Colgate Maroon News
Sonic Antarctica is a series of natural and technological sound recordings and sonifications made by artists, scientists and sound enthusiasts who have lived in Antarctica.
„When most people picture Antarctica, on the few occasions that they even think about that frozen continent, they probably think of a bare, eerily silent, and unforgivable landscape. Andrea Polli, on the other hand, pictures a land of mystery and sound as well as a saving grace for atmospheric scientists all over the world…As multiple projectors and television screens played footage of the Antarctic landscape and the scientists working in such a landscape, Polli played numerous and varied audio clips that illustrate the unusual sort of soundscape that can be found in such a locale. As she transferred from audio recording of the various forms of transportation used in the area (helicopters and planes) to the sounds of nature (glaciers melting in the summer sun, emperor penguins and elephant seals) she eventually revealed the sounds of the earth itself through a process called sonification…As the evening ended Polli left a sonification recording of a rare earthquake in Antarctica playing, as viewers trailed out of the room the sound vibrations followed, shaking even the floor with intensity.“
Frans de Waard | VITAL WEEKLY
The mail never arrives early here, which is in itself not a bad thing: it gives me time during the day to work on what I got yesterday. However when the cover has only very fine print, reading may become difficult and I have to crawl under a lamp to read what is going on. So I understand that this a new CD by one Andrea Polli, whom I don’t think I have heard of before. The Gruenrekorder website however provides us with an extended biography, of which I pick the highlights: „She is currently an Associate Professor of Film and Media at Hunter College. Polli’s projects often bring together artists and scientists from various disciplines. She is interested in global systems, the real time interconnectivity of these systems, and the effect of these systems on individuals. She has exhibited, performed, and lectured nationally and internationally. She currently works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate information through sound (a process called sonification).“ She works with natural sounds, from the atmosphere, weather and such like. This brought her to the Antarctica, where this work was recorded. Basically this work has two components: pure field recordings of the south pole and interviews with people who work there. Unfortunately they are not on a 50-50 balance: the pieces with talking in it outweigh the pieces that purely deal with sound. That is a pity. Not because I don’t like talking, but after I once took the information in, I doubt wether there is a second time of doing that. The scientists that talk about data or the fact that Darwin was a geologist rather than a biologist is interesting (certainly in the Darwin year a nice bit of trivia to throw in at a party), but would you play it again? I doubt that. The sound pieces however are quite nice, the penguins, the snow and telecommunication lines. I wish there was more of that, accompanied by a more readable book, which would provide all the text parts. A strong eco-comment however.
Another in a long line of fascinating field recordings-based releases from Gruenrekorder, Sonic Antarctica by New York City-based digital media artist Andrea Polli (also an Associate Professor of Film and Media at Hunter College) presents an encompassing, seventy-minute audio portrait of the Antarctic frontier. Among the areas covered in the recording are the “Dry Valleys” on the shore of McMurdo Sound (3500 km due south of New Zealand) which, being completely devoid of terrestrial vegetation, is the driest and, relatively speaking, largest ice-free area on the continent, and the geographic South Pole, whose central white expanse includes ice that’s nearly nine miles thick. Antarctica, larger in size than the US and an extreme environment where navigation can become a matter of life and death, makes for a suitably captivating site upon which to ground a „sound art“ recording.
The material includes natural and industrial field recordings and interviews with weather and climate scientists (that Polli compiled during a seven-week National Science Foundation residency in Antarctica during 2007-08), which are in turn sometimes held together by the “musical” glue of electronic-sounding elements (actually, scientific data transformed via “sonification” into “musical” form). Polli, who is strongly interested in global systems and in bringing together artists and scientists from various disciplines, is repeatedly heard in conversation with the researchers, and as a result her enthusiasm for the project clearly comes through. Aside from its status as a recording, Sonic Antarctica also has been presented as a radio broadcast, live performance, and sound and visual installation. In “ Round Mountain ,” we hear radio transmissions from a helicopter flying in the Williams Field and Dry Valleys areas, in “Walking on Taylor Glacier” the crunch of boots walking across snowy landscapes, and in “ Cape Royds ” the distinctive caw and chatter of penguins. During “Taylor Glacier,” scientists discuss their climate-related research studies against a backdrop of high-pitched electronic clicks and glitches, and in “No Boundaries” argue that Darwin and Da Vinci are more geologists than biologists and scientists. Polli’s diverse array of materials creates a palpable sense of place that enables the listener to transport him/herself into the imagined environment with surprising ease.
Aurelio Cianciotta | neural
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.
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Tina Manske | Titel – Kulturmagazin
Das Label Gruenrekorder widmet sich ungewöhnlichen Feldaufnahmen und der Aufzeichnung von Sounds aller Art. „Sonic Antarctica“ von Andrea Polli dokumentiert deren Aufenthalt auf einer Wetterstation in der Antarktis, man bekommt Gespräche mit den Wissenschaftlern zu hören, Schritte im Schnee, Geräusche der Luft und der Menschen, die in ihr atmen – ein interessanter Weg, die Veränderungen, die an diesem besonderen Ort stattfinden und die das Leben von uns allen beeinflussen, hörbar zu machen. Wissenschaft, so lernt man auch hier, bringt uns nur weiter, wenn Menschen zusammenarbeiten, auch wenn Wissenschaftler damit manchmal Probleme haben. Im Moment arbeitet Polli an einem Projekt namens Sonifikation, bei dem sie, die Klangforscherin, zusammen mit anderen Forschern Stürme und Klimainformationen durch Sounds zum Sprechen bringen will. […] Beide CDs sollte man unbedingt über Kopfhörer hören – ein faszinierendes Erlebnis.
Martin Büsser | Testcard #19
Die New Yorker Künstlerin Andrea Polli verarbeitet Daten zur Erderwärmung und Luftverschmutzung in Klang- und Videoinstalltionen, ein Prozess, den sie „Sonification“ nennt: die Hörbarmachung von Umweltgeräuschen und deren Folgen für das Leben auf diesem Planeten. In Zusammenarbeit mit Wissenschaftlern und Stadtplanern – die in ihren Kollagen zum Teil auf zu Wort kommen – wertet sie Daten aus und wandelt diese in Sound um, jeweils leicht modifizierte Brumm- und Zischgeräusche. Sonic Antarctica thematisiert die Erderwährmung und das Schmelzen der Eisberge, hierzu sind Field Recordings aus dem Süden Neuseelandes und vom Südpol in die Arbeit eingeflossen.
Musik im herkömmlichen Sinne entsteht dabei natürlich nicht, Pollis Arbeiten sind eher im Graubereich zwischen zeitgenössischer Kunst und politischer Dokumentation anzusiedeln, vergleichbar mit den Arbeiten von Alan Sekula. Wie auch bei Sekula spielen zwar ästhetische Aspekte eine wichtige Rolle, überlagern jedoch nie das politische Anliegen der Arbeiten. Etwas schade ist allerdings, dass die an sich schön gestaltete CD so gut wie keine Zusatzinformation enthält. Ein Essay über den Befund, der aus dieser Arbeit hervorgeht, also über konkret klimatische Veränderungen, hätte geholfen, die oft sehr abstrakten Hörgebilde zu verstehen. Schliesslich geht es hier nicht einfach um Sounds, denen man sich vom Sessel aus hingibt, sondern um Information und Aufklärung.
Zipo | aufabwegen
Sonic Antarctica ist die Sonifikation natürlicher Phänomene und die Dokumentation der wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzungen mit diesen Erscheinungen, montiert zu einer Art Radio Play von der US-amerikanischen Soundwissenschaftlerin Andrea Polli (Polli ist Ass. Professor am Hunter College in NYC). In letzter Zeit erleben wir eine regelrechten Trend der “sonification”, also der Bemühung, auch eher entlegene Wetter- und Naturgeräusche klingend zu machen; von Kalle Laars Gletschertelefon über Chris Watsons Tiergeräusche bis eben zu Sonic Antarctica. Pollis Werk gibt sich spröde und szientistisch kühl: Stimmen und rumpelnde Subbässe prägen die Höreindrücke als markante Anker im Klanggeschehen, das sonst aus allerlei diffusen Glitscherein besteht. Eine sehr versunkene Atmosphäre entsteht so.
Sara Bracco | SENTIREASCOLTARE
L’album raccoglie sessanta minuti di paesaggi neutrali dell’Antartide catturati dai microfoni di Andrea Polli nelle sette settimane (2007-2008) che l’artista ha trascorso on site con una serie di scenziati (biologi, climatologi e geologi) presso la sede della National Science Foundation.
In pratica è la versione seria di Eskimo dei Residents con i droni a portarsi dietro i materiali più differenti: dai dati scentifici estrapolati dalla stazione meteo (Countdown) ai suoni naturali (chiacchere di pinguini, sfrigolii del ghiaccio, passi sulla neve), dalle interviste (A Modelis a Cartoon) alle trasmissioni radio (Round Montain). Territori dalla natura così ostile e distante ma che nelle mani di Andrea Polli acquistano un palpabile ed emotivo senso di appartenenza.
Scultoree le componenti di Sonic Antartica vanno oltre quelle che possono sembrare solamente trascrizioni sonoro-poetiche o sensibilità ambientali merito di buone discipline elettroniche combinate alle registrazioni di campo. Energie sonore capaci di direzioni estetiche, attenzioni percettive e relazioni spaziali.
Acoustic Ecology Institute | AcousticEcology.org
While pondering Antarctica, I want to also mention a recent CD release that will appeal to the science-minded among you: Andrea Polli, an educator and sound artist with a special interest in sonification of scientific data, especially as related to climate change, spent much of her time in Antarctica following working scientists around as they pursued their many fascinations. Her CD, Sonic Antarctica was released last year on the fantastic German Gruenrekorder label; the CD is a uniquely satisfying immersion into the sounds and science of the southern continent. Andrea’s site 90 Degrees South is also a great place to go to read and hear posts on her time there, and to view a short film she created, Ground Truth, which focuses on why people go to remote, uncomfortable and often hazardous locations, to do what is known as ‘ground truthing.’
Oreshkin Sergey | maeror3.livejournal
Работая с полевыми записями, многие исполнители стараются передать атмосферу определенного места, зафиксировать окружающие звуки, уловить, возможно, некую не потревоженную еще человеком первозданность. Многие, но не все. Андреа Полли дает возможность взглянуть на Антарктиду глазами…нет, скорее, «услышать» ее ушами немногочисленных людей, проживающих на исследовательских базах и посвятивших свою жизнь исследованию этого континента. «Sonic Antarctica» – это отчет о путешествии, где большее внимание уделяются разговорам об Антарктиде. Все начинается на борту вертолета, вместе с новоприбывшими учеными слушатель слышит монотонный гул винта над головой и переговоры летчика с диспетчерами. Потом можно будет познакомиться и с основными героями этой истории. Это доктора наук и профессора, Адам Льюис, Шерон Коллидж, Андреас Фишлин и еще несколько человек. Прибыв на место своей работы, ледник Тейлора, они закрываются в доме, набитом различной аппаратурой, и начинают научные беседы, рассуждая об экологии, методах исследования, путешествиях и о том, что человеку со стороны может быть не очень понятно и интересно. Именно их голоса становятся голосом Антарктики, впрочем, Андреа Полли, конечно же, фиксирует не только их. На альбоме есть место и для настоящей симфонии цифровых сигналов, порожденных научным оборудованием («No Boundaries»), иногда исследователи все же прерывают свои беседы и выходят наружу, и тогда в микрофон попадает пронизывающий ледяной ветер, редкие крики птиц и звуки шагов («Countdown»). Вот эти моменты без разговоров, конечно же, человеку далекому от научных кругов и совершенного владения английским языком будут интереснее всего, если его полевые записи интересуют в принципе. Ощущение пространства передано хорошо, эффект присутствия в этом нелюдимом месте нашей планеты появляется очень быстро, а финальная минута «Lake Hoare» с монотонной статикой гула просто завораживает видением огромных пустых территорий, покрытых снегом. Где еще можно услышать такую тишину? А кто-то вот слышит ее каждый день.