The 21st Century Celebration of the Arctic and Antarctic

This article is a two-part series about the Arctic and Antarctic intended to celebrate the US and International Polar year.

Barnard College in New York City recently held a two-day interdisciplinary conference on Nov. 20-21, featuring images, literature, films, audio-visual installations, music, and history of the Arctic and Antarctic.

The conference used the title of Ms. Lisa Bloom’s book, Gender on Ice (1993). There was a stunning array of works done by some of the most remarkable artists, writers, photographers, and filmmakers who traveled and lived in both Poles. The conference also examined the role of women on the two Poles.

Stunning shifts in the ice of Polar environments underscore a growing need to understand the relationship between the environment and human activities and policies. The ice is melting in both the Arctic and Antarctic.

Recently, the Northwest and Northeast passages been opened by the melting ice due to the fast rate of radical climate change in the Arctic. Shipping companies from around the world are already planning to exploit the first simultaneous opening of the routes.

The two regions have become objects of international competition as well as sites of research and concern. Currently, the International Polar Year (IPY) is the largest coordinated international scientific program in 50 years, involving hundreds of projects with thousands of scientists from over 60 countries. The previous International Polar Year was 1957-1958. The US also has its Polar Year program.   

The Polar regions have been incorporated into our cultural imagination in a myriad of ways: inhospitable climates, resource-rich landscapes, and fragile eco-systems, to name a few.

The conference opened on Nov. 20, with a multimedia work, Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica by Paul Miller (DJ Spooky). The electronic music pulsated to accompany the images of penguins, Inuit people, dogs, and endless snow-covered landscape. DJ Spooky traveled to the Antarctic by a Russian icebreaker boat via South America.

True North (2004) was a 14-minute film produced by an award winning filmmaker, Isaac Julien. This installation is currently on exhibit at Kubo, San Sebastian, San Sebastian until Jan. 31, 2009.

The protagonist went on a seemingly endless walk across a stark snow-covered landscape before she met some Inuit men. The film was presented on three screens with each screen showing separate action, but the images were interconnected to show the vast landscape devoid of any human or animal, except one lone figure.

Mr. Julien, Ms. Lisa Bloom and Professor Monica Miller held a panel discussion after the movie.

Mr. Julien spoke about his desire to create a piece of work about snow and ice as representations of ambivalence and ‘whiteness’. His main inspiration came from the story of Matthew Henson (1866-1955), the first African American to explore the Arctic with Robert Peary and the Inuit collaborators in 1909.

Ms. Bloom discussed her analysis of True North from a feminist perspective. Ms. Miller shared her thoughts on being African American yet found an affinity with the extreme cold weather.