S.P. Weather Station Guest Lecture Series presents:
Andrea Polli
speaking about Ground Truth
a video project about weather and climate observation at the South Pole
Sunday, October 19th 4PM
(free and open to the public)
SP Weather Station, 46-01 5th Street, Long Island City, (go to side entrance on 46th Ave between 5th Street and Vernon Ave)
About Andrea Polli:
Andrea Polli’s electronic media works explore global systems and human experience. She often collaborates with atmospheric and climate scientists. Recent works include: a series of sonifications of projected climate change in Central Park and real-time multi-channel sonifications and visualizations of Arctic weather changes and urban air quality. She recently spent seven weeks in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation funded project, see 90degreessouth.org, and she teaches in the Integrated Media Arts MFA Program at Hunter College/CUNY.
About Ground Truth:
Ground Truth is a 12 minute short documentary, directed by Andrea Polli, which follows weather and climate observation at the South Pole, McMurdo Station and field sites in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and asks why people go to remote, uncomfortable and often hazardous locations, doing what is known as ‘ground truthing.’
About SP Weather Station:
SP Weather Station is an artist-run weather station in Long Island City, Queens, founded by Natalie Campbell and Heidi Neilson using a LaCrosse WS-2310TWC Wireless Weather Station kit. In addition to recording local weather conditions, SP Weather Station maintains a weather-related blog, publishes the SP Weather Report (produced at intervals in collaboration with guest interpreters) and hosts public events such as the Guest Lecture Series, held erratically at the SP Weather Station base in Long Island City. This is the fourth Guest Lecture at SPWS. For events and updates visit www.spweatherstation.net
On Sunday, Andrea visited SPWS to present the work she created as a resident at Antartica’s McMurdo Station via the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Sonifications and visualizations of weather from the poles led to her project “Ground Truth,” a short documentary about the staff workers at McMurdo who not only maintain the station’s weather-recording devices, but also keep scientific logs of their own unaided weather observation, a process known as “ground truthing.” While the need and usefulness for using technology to record the weather is well known, Polli’s video considers the practical and intangible value of seeing, feeling, experiencing, and recording the weather.
In the raw, unheated studio space, SPWS provided the audience with an opportunity to see, feel, and experience the October weather directly during Andrea’s talk. Hot chocolate and Particulate Matter Marshmallows were shared.
