Friday, May 4, 2018

Antarctica Window Art

While perusing the National Science Foundation homepage, I discovered this post on window art at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The austral days are changing into nights and window covers are necessary to prevent the lights inside the station from interfering with the scientific research taking place outdoors.

From their website: "To make life a bit more interesting, members of the community spending the winter at the Pole, monitoring scientific equipment or maintaining the station itself, decorated some of the window covers and a window-cover-design-contest was organized by the station manager as a morale booster."

Most all the images were labeled anonymous except for Joshua Blatell's Geodesic Figure three images below.


I am researching the cartography of Antarctica, specifically atypical maps of the Southernmost continent, and am drawn to the one above. However, I love the escapism present in the ones below.






It's hard not to feel claustrophobic once one realizes they are inserted or duct taped into all the windows. I, too, would be having visions of the Great Barrier Reef if based on the South Pole in the middle of winter.