Antarctic Surveyor II - Tracking Solar and Lunar Transitions

Nathalie Miebach, artist

born 1972

Antarctic Surveyor II - Tracking Solar and Lunar Transitions, 2008

Where object was made: North and Central America

Material/technique: string; paint; ink; reed; tape; wood; rope

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 30 x 34 x 24 in
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 76.2 x 86.36 x 60.96 cm

Credit line: Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Fund

Accession number: 2009.0019

Not on display

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Collection Cards: STEM

This sculpture represents solar (sun) and lunar (moon) data collected from the continent of Antarctica. In Antarctica the sun rises in September and does not set until March. This means that there are months of the year with total sunlight and months with total darkness. To create this sculpture the artist used data from when the sun first appears in Antarctica to when it has fully risen. During this period of sunlight the average temperature ranges from about negative 18 degrees Fahrenheit to negative 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

What is the climate like in your town?

What time of year do you experience the longest amount of sunlight? Find out why the number of hours of sunlight differs across the seasons.

How would you go about tracking the hours of sunlight (or moonlight) and what creative form would that data take?

Exhibition Label:
"Climate Change at the Poles," Jan-2009, Kate Meyer, Jennifer Talbott, and Angela Watts
Nathalie Miebach’s woven sculptures translate climatological data from the Antarctic, as well as her local environment in Massachusetts, into functional art. Antarctic Surveyor expresses lunar and solar data from the transitional period that begins with the first sliver of sunlight seen in Antarctica on August 22 and culminates at the start of the continent’s lengthy period of 24-hour sunlight on October 24. The sculpture also functions as a device that a user could read while in Antarctica during this period to determine the time remaining until total daylight occurs. Miebach therefore attempts to give form to Antarctic data while also allowing the viewer to contemplate what it might be like to explore the continent firsthand.