The Travels of the Arctic

Title card reads: The Travels of the Arctic, an online exhibition. Introduction reads: Most of us never experience the Arctic first-hand. Yet, we know what the north polar regions look like. We can easily describe them, because the Arctic travels. It travels by means of technology into our culture. It travels onto our screens, into our books, magazines, museums – and into our minds. Today the Arctic frequently travels by means of digital technology. In earlier generations it travelled mainly through technologies of print and of motion.
Image: Figure 1. John Ross, ‘Passage through the ice’, taken from: A Voyage of Discovery, 1819. Reproduced courtesy of the British Library. this first image shows a ship travelling between icebergs, under a shining sun that breaks through cloud cover. Figure 2. ‘Podróż do Bieguna Północnego’, Magazyn Powszechny. Użytecznych Wiadomości, 1835. Reproduced courtesy of Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, Poland. The second image is the same ship, icebergs and clouds but printed differently, due to the different print medium and technology. Body text reads: Seen technology: Print (Aquatint / Etching / Hand-Colouring) Easily overlooked technology: the Ship In earlier centuries, the ship as a technology of motion not only allowed us to travel to the Arctic and the Arctic to travel to us. It also became a central element of cultural narratives on the far north: the ship as a symbol of European ingenuity and power. What – if anything – would we lose if the ships disappeared from the images above? What new meaning would the Arctic landscapes acquire without the ships?
Subtitle: Be aware: Technology transmits cultural identities and values. Image: Figure 3. ‘Fridtjof Nansen und seine Nordpolexpedition‘, Der hinkende Bot, Vol. 171, 1898. Reproduced courtesy of Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland. This image depicts a darkened figure traversing an Arctic terrain. European flags wave in the air. The image has been cropped from a newspaper and is surrounded by stylised German text. Body text reads: European flag against the Arctic landscape: a symbol of European cultural identity Easily overlooked technology: gun European sense of danger and security projected onto the northern regions There are two narratives in this image: one is of the Arctic itself, the other of Europeans in the Arctic. How can we learn to better discern between the two and listen more closely to the Arctic one?
Subtitle: Beware: Technology transmits cultural stereotypes. Image: Figure 4. ‘Kurze Uebersicht der merkwürdigsten Ereignisse’, Der hinkende Bot, Vol. 94, 1815. Reproduced courtesy of Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland. Image is of a page, yellowed with age, showing a drawn representation of an indigenous man and seals, in an Arctic landscape. The drawing is somewhat crude, and the man's face is identical to the seal's face. The image is situated on a page with stylised German text. Body text: The face of the indigenous person (from Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Siberia) appears to have the same features as the animals. What does it take to acknowledge the multiplicities of another culture? It is not merely about improving (visual) technologies.
Body text: To acknowledge cultural multiplicities, one can, for example, avoid overly generalising comparisons like the following:
Figure 5a. Caricature by George Cruikshank, 'Landing the Treasure'.
Wellcome Collection
. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Image: Figure 5b. Detail of: Caricature of Cruikshank 'Landing the Treasure'. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). The cropped section of the image shows a middle-class man commenting on the unloading of a ship that has returned from the Arctic. The text from his speech bubble reads "I think as how we have Bears, Gulls, Savages, Chump Wood, Stones & Puppies enough without going to the North Pole for them." Body text: What do you know about the culture(s) of Arctic peoples? Where does your knowledge come from? To what degree is it rooted in the Eurocentric cultural narratives of the past?
Body text: Throughout the nineteenth century, technologies of print and motion allowed reproduction and vast dissemination of European visual and written accounts of the Arctic. Repeated exposure to the same hero-explorer images shaped European narratives of the Arctic, for example in Austria. Images: Three image follow, cropped from different sources. The first reads “Our north pole travellers. Illustrated memorial publication Appreciating the deeds of the heroes of the day – Payer and Weyprecht”. The image is a drawing of two warmly dressed men, posing on an iceberg. The left-middle image reads: “While drinking, the cup froze to our mouths”. It is a cartoon of a man in heavy clothing with his face stuck, frozen to a water cup. His companion is behind him, approaching with a large two-handed saw. The third and final image, bottom right, reads “Polar night", and depicts a black ink square, to indicate extreme darkness.
Subtitle: Stepping out of one('s) culture into others. Body text 1: In print, the Arctic not only travelled to us but throughout the world… …for example to the Ottoman Empire. Image: Figure 7. Şehbal 15 Teşrin-i Evvel 1325, 28 October 1909. Reproduced courtesy of the Atatürk Kitaplığı, Turkey. The image is a page from a periodical/magazine. Three photographs are shown, the first depicting a sled propelled by serrated wheels, the second showing explorer Frederick Cook arriving at Copenhagen to applause, and the third showing a darkened figure standing near manatees, which make up much of the food supply for Polar explorers, while a ship is in the background.
Body text: The Arctic was not only news in magazines... ...it became part of cultural trends, like the last Imperial Russian postcard craze. Image: Figure 8a. Types de la Russie du Nord 1 (Moscow). Reproduced courtesy of Dr Marisa Karyl Franz. This is the front cover of a postcard, depicting a group of indigenous Arctic people, standing near a tent on an open landscape. Body text: On postcards, the north polar regions travelled as the topic of conversation or a mere accessory to one… Image: Figure 8b. Types de la Russie du Nord 1 (Moscow). Reproduced courtesy of Dr Marisa Karyl Franz. This image is the back of the postcard. The print text is in Russian, suggesting it was purchased in a Russian-speaking location, but the hand-written note is in French, while the postal address is in England and the stamp is an 1/2p Green George V Stamp. Body text: …yet, in both cases, the Arctic was a part of everyday life. Where and how do we encounter the Arctic as part of our everyday life today? Image: Figure 9a. Types de la Russie du Nord 2. Reproduced courtesy of Dr Anna Gielas. This image is the back of another postcard, but more worn and aged. Body text: The constant presence of the Arctic in our culture makes us believe that we know more about its regions than we actually do.Image: Figure 9b. Types de la Russie du Nord 2. Reproduced courtesy of Dr Anna Gielas. This final image in this section is the front of the second postcard. The scene is the same as the first, but with different colouring and age."
Body text: As part of cultural trends, the far north became increasingly commodified... Image: Figure 10. Samoyed (Archangelsk). Reproduced courtesy of Dr Marisa Karyl Franz. This is the front of another, different postcard. It shows a man on a sled being pulled by dogs, with a soft mountain landscape in the background. It is in black and white, but with a line of Russian text at the top in red ink. Body text 2: ...also due to ever-changing technological possibilities. Image: Figure 11a. Samoyed (Moscow). Reproduced courtesy of Dr Anna Gielas. This is the cover of another postcard. The image is the same sled and dogs, but now printed in colour and with additional detailing on the animals and driving figure. Image: Figure 11b. Samoyed (Moscow). Reproduced courtesy of Dr Anna Gielas. The back of the postcard, covered with cursive handwriting and stamped in 1916.
Subtitle: The cultural consumption of the Arctic grew... Body text:...and a fictional Arctic emerged, shared across cultural borders. Image: Figure 12. Jules Verne: Kaptan Hatras’in Sergüzesti, Alem Press, 1308 (1891). Reproduced courtesy of the Atatürk Kitaplığı, Turkey. This image is of a double-page spread from a book. The left page shows a drawing, depicting two figures pushing a sled up a snowy incline. The second page is mostly taken up by another drawing in the same style. The figures have stopped on some flat ground with their sled dogs, but more peaks loom in the background. Both images are black and white. Body text: Where and how do we encounter a fictional Arctic today? Image: Figure 13: Jules Vernes: Kaptan Hatras'in Sergüzesti, Alem Press, 1308 (1891). Reproduced courtesy of the I.B.B. Atatürk Kitapligi, Istanbul, Turkey. The image is a cropped section of a page showing a polar bear at the edge of a chasm between ice.
Image: Figure 14a. Head of the celebrated Esquimaux dog. Lithograph by H. Hawkins. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. The image is a reprinted painting of an Arctic dog, looking straight out. It is black and white. The image is on very worn paper, and many scuffs, folds and small tears are visible around the edges. Body text: What might seem like a photograph is a printed painting suggesting that we are not always aware of how technologies intertwine to present the Arctic. Technology is oftentimes most visible through the faults and fragilities of its artefacts. Today a low-resolution image can become unsharp and pixelated. Two centuries ago, pages could be easily torn and destroyed. Image: Figure 14b. Detail of: Head of the celebrated Esquimaux dog. Lithograph by H. Hawkins. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. This image shows the top right corner of the dog painting in more detail, so the viewer can focus on the creases, folds, tears and other damage to the paper.
Body text: Know your technologies – and how they engage with your mind and emotions. Technologies have the capacity to deceive, distress and determine our emotions. Image: Figure 15. ‘In the middle of the Ocean’. Reproduced courtesy of Dr Marisa Karyl Franz. The image is of another postcard, printed in sepia. The image is angled to show the front and back, slightly overlapping. The postcard cover depicts a female polar bear, on an ice floe, protecting her cub. Body text: The bear's dangerous situation and the protective behaviour of its cub may elicit empathy and other emotions. Which of our cultural narratives of the Arctic today rely heavily on eliciting emotions?
Body text: Technologies are an agent of socialisation: the cultural messages they transmit shape our identities. The Arctic they present becomes our Arctic. Image: Figure 16: 'Podróż do Bieguna Północnego’, Magazyn Powszechny. Użytecznych Wiadomości, 1835. Reproduced courtesy of Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, Poland. This is a circular map of the northern polar region. It is drawn in ink and reprinted in a magazine. Image: Figure 17: Jules Verne: Kaptan Hatras’in Sergüzesti, Alem Press, 1308 (1891). Reproduced courtesy of the Atatürk Kitaplığı, Turkey. This is another map, but more stylised and containing far more detail. Similar circular motifs are featured, but there is more attention paid to the topographical details of the landscape. Body text: Looking at the same geographical space – Seeing different sense and meaning Through lenses of technology and culture. This closes the main body of the exhibition.

Concept and Curation: Dr Anna Gielas

Digital Curation: Samantha Peel