An additional performance of The Blizzard has been added for 11am Thursday 1 April.

Life on remote research stations and vessels however increasingly resemble the broader contemporary experience, in which strict protocols govern and preserve life. The communities who live and work in these places must learn how to be resilient in the face of an extreme and hostile environment, with its inevitable disruptions, unknowables and necessity for hyper-vigilance. The way we live in Antarctica may increasingly come to reflect the way we live on the rest of planet. Rather than consider Antarctica as a place on the edge of elsewhere, this project repositions it as a model colony of the future capable of withstanding the disruptions and uncertainty that inevitably awaits. 

Polar Patterns includes:
Antarctica Breaking by Wild System (Installation)
Antarctica Breaking comprises glacial imagery and realtime 3D visuals and sounds from data captured on the last Australian voyage of the icebreaker RSV Aurora Australis to the Antarctic continent. Adam Nash and John McCormick (aka Wild System) are the 2020 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellows and engaged with many aspects of the expedition: ship, crew, scientists, expeditioners, science experiments, a plethora of data collection and journeys over the Southern Ocean and Antarctic continent. 

The Blizzard by Philip Samartzis (Concert)
The Blizzard is a new surround sound work by Philip Samartzis solely comprising recordings of the presence and effects of high velocity katabatic wind recorded in Eastern Antarctica in 2010 and 2016. The Blizzard draws on hundreds of hours of field recordings to articulate an immersive and visceral experience of the extreme forces shaping the eco-acoustic characteristics of the world’s most remote and remarkable wilderness ecology. 

Presented by The Capitol, RMIT University School of Art and School of Architecture & Urban Design as part of Melbourne Design Week 2021, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.