Because of the name I noticed this art project:
The Art of Recycling in Antarctica: The Long View
According to the NSF site: The “Art of Recycling in Antarctica: The Long View” project conceived by artist, Michael Bartalos will result in a sculptural book made from recyclable materials collected at McMurdo and South Pole stations in Antarctica. The artist intends that the project will “raise international awareness of resource conservation practices in Antarctica, and by extension, promote and inspire sustainability worldwide.” The sculptural book, comprised of 100 vignettes housed in uniformly sized shadow boxes will be hinged to one another to display as a continuous, free-standing accordion-fold book structure. The artwork’s lengthy form draws analogies to taking “the long view” in regard to worldwide environmental consciousness as exemplified by the U.S. Antarctic Program’s rigorous recycling program.
San Francisco-based artist Michael Bartalos goes into more detail on his web site, excerpted here:
The project is inspired by the environmental mandates of the Antarctic Conservation Act and its principles. In an act of exceptional recycling, nearly all the refuse generated by the U.S. Antarctic Program is periodically removed from the continent. I’ll be looking for a variety of usable material representative of the 3.64 million pounds of solid waste generated by McMurdo and South Pole Stations, and I’ll be referring to Antarctic waste management data to conceptually structure my compositions and determine the relative amounts of each material to include.
In an homage to this legacy, each of my 100 vignettes will symbolically correspond to each year passed since Shackleton’s example of innovation and resourcefulness. Thirdly, the number represents a coming century (at least) of sustainability. Hence the title The Long View.
Bartalos is scheduled to leave in January 09, the height of summer at the South Pole.
