Living Data
Data Exchange
Science and art exchange raw data for meanings.
Scientists and artists contribute to Conversations and Collaborations,
a Living Data program of exhibitions and events for the 2013 Ultimo Science Festival (USF), Sydney.
They make climate change visible by attending to the natural world and each other.
Body of Ice is a dance work that explores the movement and nature of Antarctic ice. Antarctic ice is fragile, dynamic and alive. The journey of an ice form is continually transient. Layering, compressing, flowing, cracking, floating, crumbling, dissolving, freezing and reforming occurs at a molecular level and large scale. The diverse textures, qualities and forms of Antarctic ice are extraordinary. Seasonal cycles of ice see Antarctica double in size as it expands through fierce winter and contracts through summer. Snow forms in layers on the plateau and compresses forming ice. Glaciers flow to the coast to form ice shelves that break as icebergs. Such cycles take thousands of years, yet are always in motion. Our bodies are made up of pure water that at some point has been Antarctic ice. We are a part of the ice as well as its signs of a changing climate.
Christina Evans Sur Polar Art & Science exhibition catalogue, 2012
FELLOWSHIP + ANTARCTICA Awarded an Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship - similar to residency - I travelled to Antarctica for several weeks in 2010 for creative research to develop my dance work. I spent time at Davis and Mawson stations and although only there a short time I connected with the ice in many ways including from above in a helicopter, staying in isolated huts, sleeping outside, an iceberg cruise and being lowered into an ice crevasse. I explored how the shapes and layers of an ice structure reveal its movement history; the many processes of action and reaction that created its current, yet continually changing form. I collected a vast range of movement and choreographic stimulus, ice imagery, visual and written responses and sensory impressions. The colour, textures, diversity, scale and raw beauty of the ice was phenomenal. My diary stated: “I am full of awe, wonder and passion. The ice lives and breathes. Beautiful, severe, natural. Delicate fluidity, rock hard strength. Staggering.” I researched the different ice types such as glacial ice, sea ice, icebergs, brash ice and their extreme diversity, composition and nature. I looked at ice cycles - such as Antarctica doubling in winter and contracting in summer that to me is like a breathing body. I looked at ice behaviours as well the signs of climate change. I explored many papers, books and websites. I serendipitously met sound artist Philip Samartzis on the journey, the only other Australian Antarctic Arts Fellow that year, who I then collaborated with. The Body of Ice soundscape was born from raw, richly diverse and intricate sounds of Antarctic ice recorded by Philip in Antarctica. CHOREOGRAPHIC PROCESSES Various processes were used to create choreographic material. Image based processes included dancers viewing photographic images of Antarctic ice and translating the shape, patterns, lines and layers seen within the ice forms through the body. This utilised Butoh processes of images moving the body, allowing the images of ice to flow through the body to create movement as opposed to placing choreographed movement on the body. The journey of an ice form and how it became its current shape was recreated through bodies. Moving through space in a way that ice tracks through the ocean or amongst surrounding ice. Textures, rolling, crumbling, melting, freezing and other qualities were explored through intricate parts of the body and through bodies interacting with each other. I conducted several rehearsals in swimming pools to explore the affect, sensations and qualities of being in water, as icebergs. Dancers danced with actual ice and also performed movement material on plastic sheets covered with ice in the studio. The water in our physical composition was a pivotal exploration as this would have been Antarctic ice at one point in time, therefore we are literally a part of Antarctic ice and its cycles and processes. When dancers are moving like the ice the fresh water in their bodies is recreating a time when it was ice at some point in time. Extreme qualities of ice were explored physically such as strength, fragility, soft and hard ice and the unpredictable nature of the Antarctic environment. Dancers would move through a piece of choreography and I would shift the speed, direction or dynamic of the material, affecting sudden dramatic change in an instant. Extremely fast and extremely slow speeds were also explored. CHOREOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE The overall choreographic structure of Body of Ice follows the creation cycle and seasonal cycle of Antarctic ice. A journey from the ice plateau expands outwards through glacial flow, ice shelf formation and the breakage of icebergs, along with a range of ice interactions and qualities. A retreat of sea ice during the summer, plus the signs of excessive melting of Antarctic ice forms the ending - a vivid image of bodies melting away. Throughout the work dancers articulate ice patterns, imagery and dynamics at a cellular level as well as through their connections with each other. The work represents the movement, cycles and extreme nature of Antarctic ice. It also presents the human connection to ice - having human bodies dance the ice intrinsically connects it to us and also reflects on the impact humans are having on the ice. SOUNDSCAPE The soundscape by Philip Samartzis includes sounds of Antarctic ice taken from: The Antarctic Plateau Brash Ice at Heidemann Bay, Seal Cove and Law Cairn Frozen Lakes at Ellis Fjord and Traijer Ridge Icebergs at Anchorage Bay Sea Ice at Seal Cove Growler Ice at Long Fjord POLARITY Body of Ice was developed into full length work Polarity, performed the 2011 Melbourne Fringe Festival on a large rooftop space surrounded by the city at Federation Square, a cultural hub of Melbourne. The presentation integrated the cityscape which reflected our way of life at this point in time and how it is affecting the ice. I did not receive funding to create or present the work so the many layers required to put on a dance work such as venue costs, lighting, technicians, front of house - and especially setting up on an unconventional space on a rooftop - was not cheap. I managed to secure some in-kind sponsorship of some venue hire fees, poster design fees and rehearsal spaces. We also put on fundraising events and luckily I received good media coverage and so the tickets we sold were able to cover the costs. My dancers worked for months as volunteers.
