Ice Cores, Transluscent Truths from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Mckee Anna K, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Early career artist Anna McKee proposes to spend two weeks at the field camp of the NSF-funded WAIS Divide Ice Core Project, a deep ice core that will provide one of the most detailed records of atmospheric conditions ever obtained. Her sketches and photographs of field work and the landscape will be used to create a series of contemporary etchings and drawings. This work will add to a rich tradition of graphic arts from the early days of Antarctic exploration. The artist will create an exhibition catalog of these images with an essay describing her experiences, the scientific research and its contribution to the climate change story. She will examine a variety of metaphors and visual themes as part of project, including the aesthetics of ice cores; memory (the existence of atmospheric gases in the cores as planetary memories); scale, place and time; parallel places (contrasting the conditions of 20,000 years ago on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with those in the Puget Sound Basin, where she is based); and contribution to environmental awareness and understanding Among her efforts to achieve a broader impacts for her project, she will make presentations throughout Seattle in libraries, high schools, after-school programs and an art school. A proposed gallery exhibit and presentations will be advertised throughout the library system, arts organizations and on a Seattle cable channel arts program. She is also collaborating with an inner-city public middle school science teacher to develop a multi-disciplinary presentation in coordination with their environmental studies curriculum, which can eventually be shared with other schools. She also will maintain an Internet journal documenting her travel to Antarctica, the challenges of working on the ice and WAIS Divide field activities to share the artwork and its context nationally and abroad and she is planning presentations with TechREACH, an NSF-funded educational program that targets at-risk middle school students throughout Washington.