Polar Force – Array

Friday 25 + Saturday 26 November: 11am – 4pm
Sunday 27 November: 11am – 2pm

Free event

Composers: Eugene Ughetti / Philip Samartzis
Producer: Ashley Dyer
Sound Engineer: Tilman Robinson
Production: Keith Tucker (Megafun)

Polar Force – Array is an eight-channel sound installation expressing the experience of a remote Antarctic research station through the convergence of sound, site and performance. The result is an immersive and affective experience of the spaces, protocols and conditions comprising the bracing polar environment.

Polar Force – Array features recordings of radar and scientific instrumentation used for upper atmospheric research and terrestrial communication. These sounds reveal the sophisticated technology and architecture used and heard within the Australian Antarctic Territory. Many of the recordings focus on the way the built environment is transformed through stress and fatigue caused by extreme climate and weather events including freezing temperatures and high velocity winds.

Together with the field recordings are layers of live performance using custom-built instrumentation to produce a unique series of textures, rhythmic cycles, resonances and timbral phenomena. The application of tension and pressure upon the assorted instruments recalls the distressed state of highly specialised infrastructure found within the perimeters of a research station.

In three parts, Polar Force – Array presents Antarctica as a liminal space oscillating between representation and abstraction to challenge often repeated tropes. The intent is to blur the relationship between the recorded and performed to produce a hyper-realistic encounter of the powerful forces that operate at the margins of our planet. One hears the precariousness of a remote research station contorted by unrelenting stress, compressed air forced through waterborne fipples and the volatility of weather events. Rather than consider it as a place on the edge of elsewhere, Antarctica and its assemblage of durable, super modern colonies provides an archetype for an uncertain future in anticipation of the volatility that awaits.

This event is part of The Current Climate
Produced by hcmf// supported by British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as part of UK/Australia Season 2021-22

Photo: Polar Force – Array © Philip Samartzis