Polar Force

Overview

You might never make it to the South Pole, but you can experience it at the world premiere of Polar Force. Taking over the the Playhouse Rehearsal Room in Melbourne's Arts Space from November 24 until December 1, this performance will immerse you in a massive inflatable space where you'll be surrounded by Antarctic winds, crackling ice bergs and blinding whiteness.

At its aural centre are hundreds of field recordings made by Dr Philip Samartzis, an Associate Professor in Sculpture, Sound and Spatial Practice at RMIT, who travelled to the South Pole in 2009 and again in 2015, on Antarctic Arts Fellowships. This soundtrack of extreme weather will combine with live percussion, played by Speak Percussion on instruments built at the RMIT School of Industrial Design.

"Polar Force allows audiences to understand, through sound, the phenomenal energies at play in Antarctica," said Eugene Ughetti, creator, co-director, composer and instrument designer. "It also points to the excessive infrastructure and power required for humans to safely exist there and therefore our impact on the environment."