ICC
OPEN SPACE 2009
Mission G "Antarctica Calling: Showa Station Now"
2009-10
photo: KIOKU Keizo
Antarctica is a continent that had not officially "existed" for human beings until 1820. In 1911, Roald AMUNDSEN reached the South Pole. After a period in which various countries made territorial claims to Antarctica, the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58 and the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959 led to the reservation of that continent as an international zone for scientific research. Now Antarctica is the front line of interdisciplinary science, where measurement and research contributes to our knowledge of the global environment and the origins of the Earth and informs our understanding of the Earth's future. The 50th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) is currently at Showa Station for one year and four months, until February 2010; it performs various kinds of measurements in severe Antarctic weather. What do the members of the expedition who live at this isolated camp experience? This exhibit introduces direct messages from MURAKAMI Yusuke, one of expedition members, with his blog, photos, videos and sounds, and also real-time video streaming from Showa Station, six time zones away, where the seasons are the reverse of those in Japan. In addition, research logs and measurement data gathered by the expedition will be presented from time to time during the exhibition. This exhibition is then a unique opportunity to see, through the eyes of expedition members, an unfamiliar and distant place on which only a handful of people ever get to set foot. "Field Note from Antarctica," blog by the JARE member MURAKAMI Yusuke
http://web.me.com/myusuke/Field_Note_from_Antarctica
MURAKAMI Yusuke Profile Born in 1978, MURAKAMI, a specialist in polar architecture, has been sent as a technology specialist by the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR). He participates in The 50th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition as a member of the Geosphere division. He will be in Antarctica with the expedition until February 2010, conducting seismic and GPS measurements. A holder of master's degree in public policy and media, he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, specializing in architectural design and human factors in polar regions, outer space, and other extreme environments. He also conducts his research related to the ground design of Showa Station. The 50th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition The expedition consists of 46 members, including the "winter unit," with MURAKAMI Yusuke and 27 other individuals (December 2008-February 2010), and the "summer unit," with eighteen members (December 2008-February 2009), who have already returned to Japan. In the more than half a century during which Japan has been conducting geophysical research in Antarctica, this was the first expedition carried out without an icebreaker from Japan. Through a joint project between Japan and Australia, the Australian icebreaker "Aurora Australis" transported the expedition to Showa Station, and expedition members from both countries jointly conducted oceanographic measurements. National Institute of Polar Research Founded in 1973 with the goals of promoting comprehensive scientific research and geophysical measurements in polar regions. It plays a vital geophysical monitoring on a global scale, including observations conducted at Showa Station and other research stations operated by Japan in the Antarctic, at research stations in the Arctic, and through outdoor, oceanographic, aerial and satellite data collection. It also, through the Graduate University of Advanced Studies, carries out interdisciplinary research. The institute also implements educational fieldwork and other outreach activities. In April of 2009, it moved to Tachikawa, Tokyo.
Related Event Symposium "Mission G"
Date: May 16 (Sat.), 2009, 2:00 pm[Finished] | >Details |