31 December
by Amanda Rodrigues Alves
We started the day late and only really worked after brunch, around midday. We first had a meeting to discuss how is the project going and what should be our next steps. This discussion then turned from a more practical one to a more philosophical one as to why we are here. In all I think that it was a good discussion and we all came out of it doing a lot of thinking but also physically exhausted.
After a short break I came back and Thomas and Adam were discussing about some points on some of the diary entries. Regarding that I would like to say that each of these entries represent and express the views of the individual that wrote it and not an I-TASC joint point of view. This is very important because the project is also about that, different people with different background giving their input in a non hierarchical way. There are no bosses here and we most of the time don't agree with each other but still from our different places have been contributing to the realisation of the project.
So I would like to write down some points that were discussed in the first discussion as far as I can remember.
- The site proposed for the AWS unit is Lorentzenpiggen and that is only 14 km away so some of us feel that that is not remote enough. That a Base there wouldn't bring any benefits for the scientific community because is so close to SANAE and in that way we could put the unit in the designated scientific area a few hundred metres from the base. That would then cause less damage to the environment as this is an area which already has many different monitoring devices installed.
- we discussed having a meeting with the scientists here to see if they would like the unit to be in some other location so that it could be more useful to their research and that would then justify the existence of the project at that remote location.
- we discussed what are the justifications for caring on with the project and the three aspects of it, which are the scientific side, the engineering side and the art side.
- that Lorentzenpiggen might be a bit to exposed to the wind and its position on top of a ridge might represent a risk to people living there on a future base.
- That the radio station here is causing as much damage to the environment as putting a monolith (with the AWS inside) in the landscape.
- that maybe by not doing the project we might make a stronger political statement then by doing it.
Now I would like to say what is my opinion of all this, again this is MY opinion and is different from the others here.
First of all I got a bit irritated about the environmental issue, in general I find it hypocritical when people say we must preserve Antarctica, because is the last great wilderness, etc without being at least as preoccupied in preserving the environments where we come from. If we are going to be radical about Antarctica we have to be radical about our own home. It is very easy to want to preserve something that is almost not touched but is very hard to preserve what we already destroyed because that involves a change of habits, a change of the way we think and a change in the way we consume this world. And I don't think that being radical is the way to go.
I think our project doesn't need to look for justification in science to legitimize itself. We are using completely clean energy, we will take away everything we are bringing here, we are not killing any animals, plants or persons, we are not invading any peoples land, we are not destroying any culture and with this project we are bringing awareness to ourselves and others about what has been and is happening in Antarctica, we are extending that knowledge to people beyond only those in the scientific or adventure world. This is a land that belongs to us all that can be a model of how we can live together, of how we can inhabit this world and cooperate with each other. That for me is the art side of the project and a justification for us being here. I don't think it opens a precedent for anything that can be harmful. Even if it doesn't work out this has been already an unprecedented form of international collaboration for the South African Antarctic program and is already providing the opportunity for thought.
Anyway, after the second discussion we kind of all got a bit shaken and each of us went their own way. But it was New Years Eve after all and this for me felt a bit awkward. For me, or maybe for the culture I grew up in this is a moment to come together to make wishes for a new beginning, a celebration of starting again. But we were all in our different spaces and not really wanting to be together. It got me thinking because since I started this journey I have been having internal clashes with other people here, what does that mean, it means that because they behave in ways that are different to mine, to my culture, they sometimes make me act in an unexpected way or they bring a side of me that I don't really like. In one way it is good because it creates an opportunity for me to change, to rethink who I am and how I act but in another way it also makes me uncomfortable all the time. This is not only between the I-TASC crew but with all the people on the base.
I did do my own little ritual for the passage of the year and tried to act positive, to join the party and I had a good time. It was weird to have bright sun light at midnight, it is clear here that Time is an invented thing and also that we create lots of ritual and patterns for our life that maybe have no meaning at all once you have no Time or once you are disconnected from the sources that reinforce these rituals. But I've learned to appreciate and to actually want rituals as I've been getting old, I think they make life more colorful.
So instead of jumping 7 waves like we do in Brazil, once the midnight strikes, I did what my mother suggested and tried to throw 7 snow balls into the air, but that quickly became a snow fight with Thomas, we had a good laugh.
The Brazilian music was boycotted by the party so I had to stick either with UB40 or with some Afrikaans country music (Lulu) in between cheesy rockroll from the 80's. I was dancing reggae.
I took some pictures of inside the base and I'm posting them here so you can have a feel of our temporary home at the bottom of the world.
New Years Eve, 2006
by Adam HydeLast night First Born and I did a show till 2 or so, playing mostly for the people in the bar that were listening and having a good time. Then up at 7 to do the skivvies (chores). Now I am sorting cables and getting things together for the full-time running of the station.