There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void

We do not want to conquer, we want only to explore. We want simply to enquire. To do this, we map our trajectories across the landscape, to know where we've been and what we leave behind. To know what residue our presence leaves on the environment. And to prove it to others. And to ensure we do not repeat the same mistakes again - the Victorian adventurers who measured and categorised and identified and named as an act of ownership.

We, too, will measure and categorise and identify, but for different reasons. To make these measurements, we use those same machines of exploration: an aerial vehicle, an underwater vessel, a sailing ship. With these we measure the conditions of our surroundings and ask "what have we left behind that we did not intend to? Is it inert, innocuous? Is it poisonous?"

But even as we measure, our machines influence the environment further. They are measuring themselves. There is a feedback loop. There is reflexivity, the Observer Principle. These minute anomalies must all be measured.

But wait.

Is this exploration only one-way? Is it not reciprocal? What of the environment's influence on us? Not only the physical, but the psychological, the emotional. How is this measured? How do we map inspiration, awe, joy, intimidation, confusion, fear, loneliness?

The Arctic also explores us and she, too, leaves a residue. To this end, the camera is my measuring device. I observe the other crew members exploring and measuring over three strata (air, land and sea). I explore with them. I watch. I react. I question. I participate and agitate. I have no sense of direction or spatial awareness, so I and the camera can be lead only by basic sensory and emotional responses.

I challenge my body every day as I train for long-distance running. My work should commit to the same level of intensity, and through that physical challenge I will record also the non-physical. I record the emotional because it is, after all, at the point of extreme physical exertion that my emotional state is at its highest.

The Arctic has a physicality. It is defined, above all, by one singular characteristic: cold. To understand the Arctic, we must experience this physicality. Only the body can recognise this nature of the Arctic.

The Arctic has also a non-physicality. It is defined, above all, by the absence of everything we recognise and relate to. To understand the Arctic, we must experience this non-physicality. Only the camera can recognise this nature of the Arctic.

Saeed Taji Farouky - February 2011