ANTARCTICA FOR EVERYONE:

Project 1

An Up Close and Personal Awareness Campaign

08–16–2024

We’re creating a series of short films featuring Antarctic researchers’ personal footage to foster a personal bond with the public.

Our first project is a short film series entitled “Antarctica for Everyone,” produced in cooperation with the Australian Antarctic Division, the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, the Snow-Avalanche Institute, and Dr Petra Heil.

Sunlight is attending the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Conference in August 2024 in Pucón, Chile to present the project, connect with new collaborators, and gather personal footage from scientists in attendance. This footage will be used to create films which reveal their personal, emotional, human experience out on the ice. Our goal is to raise awareness about their urgent and critical work by helping to foster a personal bond with the public.

Session #35: Public Engagement with Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research

Presentation GB-S35 -373: Show Your Work — The Inherent Adventurous Spirit, Hardships and Emotional Bonds of Antarctic Research as Drivers of Public Engagement

Emotion drives engagement.

Complexity, apathy and desensitization are common obstacles for capturing public attention with charts, graphs and data. How to make the average person appreciate and engage with urgent scientific findings? What universally nets understanding and appreciation across cultures and across time? Hard work, camaraderie and adventure.

Share the adventure.

Antarctic researchers are a particularly adventurous breed and the human experience of conducting Antarctic research is an extremely compelling narrative – generations of unique and talented characters from across the globe, bonded by purpose, bravely conducting critical research in a dangerous, exotic environment of striking beauty.

Big idea, short story.

Our goal is to increase the public’s interest in and engagement with urgent Antarctic data by revealing the great lengths researchers must undergo to produce them – to paint a multifaceted picture of the researcher’s experience in a very short amount of time. And show the public aspects of this experience they don’t normally get to see.

It takes this:

To get to this:

SUBMIT YOUR FOOTAGE

We’re looking for compelling footage from Antarctic researchers and their institutions – footage that reveals the extreme conditions, dedication, adventure, camaraderie, complexity and depth, perils and joys of Antarctic research.

submit

Examples of footage we are seeking:

Selfie videos and photos
Candid footage of fellow researchers
Communal celebrations
The perilous voyage to the continent
Extreme weather and conditions
Machinery breaking and being repaired
Multinational participation
Funny moments and people laughing
Unique institutional and historical footage
You doing your work

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