Andrea Polli

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.