Category: Emmerson

Emmerson and Eco Marine at LUSH Live Central 2018

6/6/2018

Emmerson went to LUSH Live Central with Eco Marine last month to share with visitors what she had seen in Svalbard. She got to show the ocean plastic found on the landings.

She also helped out with the workshop to upcycle Hong Kong beach trash into art.

Here's some of the trash collected from a beach in Hong Kong made into a backdrop and the #unnaturepile made from plastic lighters (and a phone!) washed ashore. When was the last time Emmerson was at the phone?

Remember to ask yourself— What can I do?

Your everyday choices and actions matter! We can all do our part in this plastic madness.

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name that glacier

15/9/2015

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day 12: Friday June 26—Emmerson

This is Esmarkbreen! We are back at Ymerbukta...with a lot less snow and ice on the ground.

I was designated photographer today. This morning as I was enjoying the view on deck, I saw this glacier. Does it look familiar to you? I also came across Carina's melting iceberg project. Reminds me of a map. We made a morning landing and then had varying afternoon options.

Sally and Nemo keeping us safe.

Just ten days later back at Ymerbukta, I was able to find a lot more plant life.

What new projects are there?

We found interesting and colourful rocks as well so we made some sculptures together.

There is much colour in the Arctic.

In the afternoon, there were three options: short hike with time at Esmarkbreen, a long hike, and a silent zodiac trip. We opted for the last one. I really enjoyed the quiet time.

In the late afternoon, the winds were prime for sailing.

That evening, we began our journey towards Pyramiden, an abandoned Russian mining town. Snowball of course was rather excited to be seeing something from her birthplace.

Until tomorrow's adventures!
xx Emmerson

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mysterious mushamna

23/8/2015

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Joey atop the jib-boom, Amber and Tito observing the sea ice.

day 7: Sunday June 21—Emmerson

We meet the sea ice!

Mushamna is a moody and mysterious place. I looked over the side of Antigua and this is what I spotted:

Who's that stealthy swimmer?

PB tracks!!! We were told they were not fresh ones though.

Costa was on the other side with Tito and Jisun. Look at that ice wall made by the Antigua!

Aurora and the other guides got ready to go on land first to establish the safe zone in the fog so we popped into the lounge to see what everyone was up to. Costa really enjoys hanging out on the tables! He observed as Resa drew seaweed like structures onto her long roll of mylar. I spotted a polar bear and other arctic life forms. I wonder how long this entire art piece is. Resa paints, draws and her work is sculptural too. She told me that she has a commission piece up in Shanghai. That's not too far from Hong Kong. If we go visit, we'll have to go look for it.

No polar bears around so time for us to go on land!

We were surrounded everywhere by white and it felt like we were on an island. The first thing I noticed was the variety and amount of plastic at this landing site. We had a bag so started collecting as we walked towards Theres at the other end of the safe zone. The pieces were so colourful in this Arctic landscape we couldn't help but make a temporary art piece. We made sure to bring all the plastic we found back onboard with us.

What do you see?

I couldn't see very far with all the fog.

Sadie and Caroline found shells, feathers, bones, seaweed and other mysterious pieces of nature.

Snowflake and I decided to make these to contrast the natural and manmade.

As we made our way down the long stretch of safe zone, we stopped to watch and catch up with artists at work. Kyle and Amber are dancers and choreographers. It was fascinating to observe their process especially in this environment. They also created some stunning photography work.

Melissa is a visual artist who does installations, video work and sculptures among other things. Do you think she'll want to interview me after she finishes up with Aurora?

Snowflake hung out with our roomie Louise! She writes and also works in a wide variety of media.

We crept up quietly behind Joey and Lumans but didn't end up scaring them. Cayber said that wouldn't be kind. They had quite the view of Antigua. Looks like a ghost ship no? Something I wish I had brought was a chair like Joey's. He let me try it out though, along with his dip pen and blue ink! Happy drawing fun. Thanks Joey!

Next we came upon Alex doing some recording. She does a lot of video work. Snowflake was really fond of her pineapple and wanted many pictures with it. I will just include three here for you to see.

Costa continues to be intrigued by the gold. We know Bahar is up to something amazing with her video footage. She works with a lot of bright colours as well and if you looked carefully, you may have spotted some in previous days' photos.

Can you see who's over there with Theres? I forgot to bring binoculars.

Curious composition Jisun. Snowflake is fascinated.

It was way too far (and getting a bit chilly) to go all the way to the end so we turned around. Suddenly, Snowflake told us to STOP! She spotted another pineapple...along with some other peculiar items. Can you see the tiny subjects in the photograph? One is of the north, the other the south.

We made one last artist visit with Megan before we hopped back onto the zodiac. I am HERE. And so is Cayber ; ).

Here. Such a powerful word.

Megan has worked with flags in some of her previous projects so it was interesting to see how they were used differently in each. We really like her artist's books as well.

O midnight sun you finally appear, revealing mountains all around us.

It's dinner time and then summer solstice continues! I think today will be the longest awake day for me.

xo,
EMF

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fjord of love

16/8/2015

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day 6: Saturday June 20 morning—Snowball

This morning we went on deck early to watch as Antigua sailed into Liefdefjorden, the Love Fjord. I felt right at home with my ♥♥ shades.

Emmerson and I had some time before breakfast so we had a little fun climbing up high.

Cayber joined us after breakfast whilst we waited to board the zodiac to land at Hornbækpollen.

We made our way around and up through some deep snow to get to Sally sitting on the adjacent hilltop. We spotted her easily with her fluorescent vest. We came across interesting shaped rocks, flowers and bones on the way up.

Before heading off to explore, we waited for everyone to arrive on land and Aurora to tell us where the safe zone at this site was. It was quite a large area with many vantage points on hilltops.

Walking back towards the shore, we found Ashley drying her polaroid prints. I think she said the back part can be used to make other images from. I'll have to do more investigating. We really like her polaroid camera with its contraptions and moving parts! As you can probably tell with all her gear and full pockets, Ashley is a photographer. Her art captures beautiful colours and stories. We can't wait to see her work from the Arctic!

Siobhan was nearby holding this.

Snowglobe? Crystal ball?

Cayber had a closer look and turns out she's experimenting with a heliograph. This one is similar to a sunshine recorder. She's trying to focus the sunlight to burn marks onto paper she puts around the glass orb. Too many clouds today though.

I had a look at some of her previous art and particularly liked her short film Elemental.

Cayber seemed to be getting stuck a lot between the rocks and thankfully it was nearing the time to head back onto Antigua for lunch.

When we got onboard, we found Snowflake and Max eating already. They didn't wait for us!

The afternoon plan is a hike to see Erikbreen. Time for me to get some food.

Bye now,
Snowball

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hiking around Fjortende Julibukta

27/7/2015

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Snowball wanted to reflect on her morning so decided to stay on the Antigua.

day 3: Wednesday June 17 afternoon—Emmerson and Snowflake

Other hike options:

short–going towards the side of the glacier front (where we are in the picture below)
stationary–staying at the morning landing site

Snowflake and I joined the other long hikers to get some views of the bay. With my springy legs, I like to climb (bounce) high. : ) What a view we got! In the panorama above, you can see Fjortende Julibreen closest to us in the right half of the photograph. Middle left is the tiny Antigua. On the left side you can see two more glaciers. Far left is Lilliehöökbreen and from my map reading skills, next to it should be Kollerbreen.

Snowflake getting a lift towards Fjortende Julibreen.

A short break to enjoy the glacier up close before we head UP!

Theres and Thomas (to-MAH) guiding + guarding the long hikers.

Watch where you step!

The terrain was rocky and with the snowmelt, getting muddy.

We stopped for another view of Fjortende Julibreen near the top of the ridge. We're up quite high but it doesn't appear so. Why do we see blue and white in the glacier?

Back on the tallship, I showed Snowball the photos Snowflake and I took on the hike. She showed us this...

I will write my classmates when the real polar bears appear! Bye for now.

—Emmerson

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Sailing Day: Monday June 15

15/7/2015

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Today is sailing day! Did you see the Antigua
docked here and then sail away on the portcam? I took this screenshot after breakfast just as it was panning over our home for the next two weeks.

We had the morning in town to grab any last minute necessities and then headed to the dock at 13:00. Sail time was around 18:30. Our first destination: Esmarkbreen in Ymerbukta (breen = glacier, bukta = bay). Esmarkbreen is named after a Norwegian mineralogist and Ymerbukta a Swedish scientific journal. Ymer is also a giant in Norse mythology.

To the left is our map onboard along with our entire expedition route from MarineTraffic that our fellow explorer Bahar found for us after the trip.

Whilst waiting to set sail, we received some sailing instruction from Laura, the first mate. Emmerson was concentrating on the figure eights made by the ropes and then observing AB and Maggie as they practiced how to tighten the ropes and make fast—securing the ropes attached to the sails.

Captain Jo briefed us on boat safety and introduced the crew.
Three things of many we learned:

If someone goes overboard, it takes ~8min to rescue the person.
There are five life rafts on the tallship and each can hold 25 people.
Satellite images of sea ice are used so we know where we can sail. Red signifies the thickest areas.

I found some ice chart information from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute if you fancy a look.

Here is our day in pictures:

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let's start at the very beginning

14/7/2015

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The flight time from Oslo, Norway (OSL) to Longyearbyen, Svalbard (LYR) is 2 hours 55 minutes. Apart from Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Norwegian also flies there.

Blue skies welcomed us at Svalbard Lufthavn Longyear. Longyearbyen (previously Longyear City) is named after John Munro Longyear, who started a settlement here after founding the Arctic Coal Company in 1906 to mine in Svalbard.

Our location is 78° 15N - 15° 30E. We flew 2046km from Oslo and Bangkok is 8378km away.

It's been over a month now since we embarked on our Arctic adventure and we'll be taking these next few weeks to retrace our journey. We arrived in Longyearbyen on June 10, three days before our fellow artist explorers were due in town, so we had some time to look around.

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Hello!

Glad you're joining us here. I'm an artist + educator learning and creating from the amazing things encountered adventuring in Svalbard in the high Arctic and around the world.

The classroom explorers and I returned in July 2015 and they have now all headed back to their classrooms to share what they saw, discovered and learned.

Have a look around to find out more about the adventurers and how we prepared for the expedition. You can read our Arctic trip log in order by starting with Day 0 in the categories section below. For pre-trip posts, use the Archives section and start with April 2015 : ).

Salome

Emmerson and Eco Marine at LUSH Live Central 2018

name that glacier

day 12: Friday June 26—Emmerson

mysterious mushamna

day 7: Sunday June 21—Emmerson

fjord of love

day 6: Saturday June 20 morning—Snowball

hiking around Fjortende Julibukta

day 3: Wednesday June 17 afternoon—Emmerson and Snowflake

Sailing Day: Monday June 15

let's start at the very beginning

Hello!

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