ANTARCTICA: A CHROMATIC PARADOX
By Skye Morét (US)
Most people think of Antarctica as white, gray, and blue, but beneath the sea surface, colour is anything but subtle. To capture the diversity of vibrant life that she saw during her seasonal work with the US Antarctic Program, artist Skye Morét compared colour pixels from 100 photographs taken above and below the waves of the Antarctic Peninsula. Fifty upper bars represent images captured of the land and seascape above the sea surface, while fifty lower bars exemplify the vibrant and varied world beneath the waves.
For each of the 100 photographs, pixels in the image were sampled from top-to-bottom, left-to-right, then sorted by color values and widened into a pixel bar wide enough to see. The interface area allocated to undersea hues was deliberately emphasised — with more pixels sampled — to highlight the abundance and importance of this life in the Antarctic ecosystem.
The juxtaposition of colour and intensity exposes our assumptions of a ‘colourless’ Antarctica and reveals a surprising realm below — one that tends to be neglected in popular dialogue about a quickly warming Antarctic Peninsula. In that light, it is the artist’s hope that experiential media can engender a rich cultural consciousness and connection to Antarctica, a continent most people will never experience and can barely conceive.
Underwater photographs taken by Paul North.
BIO
Skye Morét is a data-driven designer. Her diverse background in marine science — having sailed 80,000+ miles around the globe — fuels her belief in the power of art and design in communicating nature and science. Her work investigates the complex relationship between nature and technology-mediated human expectations, experiences, and engagement.