Good questions

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I received some good questions from the Aesthetics and Accuracy website.
I respond to these here, and add more questions of my own.

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What do I mean by animating the words of Antarctica?

Words describing Antarctic landscape have come from other contexts – other landscapes in other places.

No indigenous human culture existed to forge a language from that land.

For some, even everyday words can sound different there. They can assume a kind of disembodied quality, beautifully described by Jack Ward, who wintered at Mawson in 1955-6:

You feel the word
lives
for the first time,
estranged
as soon as it is spoken.

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I am currently seeking scientific observations that can be animated in schematic form, and have been talking with a marine scientist who had studies zooplankton poo, and its impact on climate change.

I’m impressed by the designs of Edward Tuffte, but frustrated by his lack of interest in screen-based/time-based work.

I am interested in what I have seen so far on the Aestheetics & Accuracy site.

Ken Field’s work in the language of music is something I would like to know more about. Apparently when you interact with this work the point of view can move round. The view on this link is fixed however. I would be very keen to see it in action.

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What dictionary and data am I using?

I am working with The Antarctic Dictionary written by Bernadette Hince, and published by the CSIRO in 2000.

The data I am working with includes the diaries of Jack Ward and Fred Elliott, two Antarctic expeditioners who spent over a year working in and around Mawson between 1955-56; drawings made by Fred Elliott of the Framnes Mountains; interviews with Jack and Fred and present day expeditioners (yet to be conducted); scientific data on the proliferation of zooplanktons in Antarctic waters, and on the Antarctic continent’s first known plant life (yet to be collected).

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Do I need examples of animated dictionaries or is what I have
in mind more like a thesaurus or taxonomy?

What I have in mind is more of a Thesaurus than a Dictionary or Taxonomy.

What does that mean?

Rather than classifying words or data, I am interested in making links between different interpretations of Antarctic words pertaining to landscape. Part of the reasoning behind this is to be able to identify how past and present interpretations change over time.

The Thesaurus is just one interface through which to interact with the material.

There are narrative sequences being developed in Journey, which have begun to reveal different ways of observing and responding to the landscape. Particular attention is given to the evidence of change in the internal and external landscapes of the travelers:

Dummy run draws upon my own Antarctic journey in 2002, and reveals changes in my conception of landscape, and in my perception of home after being in such an alien place. It was made literally as a dummy run to explore interface and animation ideas.

Framnes Fjella animates an eight-day expedition Jack Ward and Fred Elliott made with John Bechervaise and others through mountains south of Mawson. This has only just begun, by my reading of their diaries and Fred’s drawings suggest it will be about the changes they observe and explain using an investigative language combining science and aesthetics. For animating this piece, I have reconstructed the puppet used in an earlier work, Beware of Pedestrians (1995). The software used in the 1995 work was Autodesk Animator Pro, which is no longer available. I made the animation using a simple utility that I downloaded from Windows. I ported the individual picture files to my Linux system and used Gimp to edit the fade in and out, and then compiled the animated .gif in Image Magik.

There will also be an interactive Map.

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What do you mean by animating?

I’m still working on that. For the moment I define it very broadly as artmaking that provides a ‘voice’ for landscape, or environment. It covers objects and art that exists in time. It can also include dialogues between people through their art, and dialogues artists have with the landscape.

Michaela Grieve as constructed installations that simulate Antarctic atmospheric effects in real time.
I include her work in my study as an example of animation.

Dance is also a way of animating concepts that exist in time, and so I explore movement improvisation to find expressive for to the data. I practice physical movement improvisation with my own body before animating for screen.

Musical phrases are being developed in response to both the original data and animated responses.

Dance and music and props have all been used in animated films in the past.

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Why not consider moving from the historic drawing to the photo to the animation all at once rather than unfolding?

Other questions


What are the criteria of its success?

By what criteria can its success be measured?

Who is the intended audience for the work?

Who are the most appropriate assessors?


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Posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007