Persistence of Vision: Antarctica

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA

Investigators

Abstract

The National Science Foundation manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, which coordinates all U.S. research on the southernmost continent and in the Southern Ocean. This project has the potential to create an appreciation in a wide audience about the national importance of the research program supported by NSF in the Antarctic and the ways in which modern science has advanced over its antecedents in the "Heroic Era" of scientific exploration a century ago. The purpose of the Antarctic Artists & Writers program is allow a very small number of professional artists across a variety of disciplines to experience that research first-hand in order to use non-technical media interpret the science in that are accessible to a broad swath of the general public, with the goal of increasing visibility and appreciation for the science NSF supports. The aim of this project is to create installations in the United States science museums that creatively stage ?virtual encounters? between scientific explorers of the Heroic Age of exploration at the turn of the 20th century and contemporary scientists, allowing participants to compare and to contrast the two eras. This medium will allow prospective participants to explore this material in a new, distinct, fresh and engaging way that immerses them in the experience and that draws parallels and distinctions between science, as it was conducted a century ago and how it is carried out today. The National Science Foundation provides access to US Antarctic Program activities in Antarctica but does not provide funding for this work.