Almost ready to go

Tags: David Buckland

Tonight we head north after 9 months of very detailed planning with the Cape Farewell team. We are collectively relieved, excited and somewhat proud. Vicky, Hannah, Kathy, Nina, Lisa and I have lived and breathed this reality and now we voyage north with what I believe is a quite outstanding group of highly creative artists, musicians, comics, poets, architects, craft based artists, film makers, writers… I’ve been speculating about whether such a powerful creative group has every been assembled before to address what is a culture and life threatening future truth. We will spend ten days together in the High Arctic working with the scientists and crafting our own response. As Vanessa Carlton has put it, ‘to challenge a stubborn world’.

The past two weeks have been hectic with the youth launch in Toronto [thank you Leslie] followed by a fantastic gathering at Vanessa’s loft in New York, a presentation in Strasbourg and our London Launch at the Science Museum with Prof. Chris Rapley, Dr. Simon Boxall and KT Tunstall. This has made us very visible and Hannah and Kathy have put together a very sexy internet communication machine so that all can follow us live as we work in the north.

Many of the artists have projects planned and as you can see from my frantic last minute packing, I too am planning video projections – a physical theatre. Bolted to the front of the ship is a container with all the science equipment, projectors, lighting and a piano [electric]. The ship has passed through two storms getting to the West coast of Greenland so I hope all this stuff is OK.

Tomorrow morning [very early] the US and the European groups get together for the first time in Reykjavik before we complete the final leg of our journey to the ship. This is an outstanding effort with people coming from far away places, LA, New York, Canada, France, Scotland, Holland, Italy, England… I can’t wait until we can all join the boat and voyage north. The weather promises a bit of a blow for Saturday which should bring the first winter snow and a whitening of the landscape and next week looks to be very clear and cold, -7C. We are declaring a Cape Farewell independent time zone on the ship to make the most of the daylight hours and to give Peter Gilbert and his film crew the best chance to work. Roll on the northern lights.

I’ve just noted that we have just received the support of the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, for our expedition. Thank you to him, and for his speech on Tuesday where his climate commitment received a vociferous welcome from the assembled audience. We do need the political will and a cultural shift to be able to look our kids and future generations in the eye and say, yes, we did act.


Davids luggage

8 Comments

  1. clare twomey

    Posted Thursday 25 Sep at 16:57 | Permalink

    Good luck on the first leg of your journey today David and the Artist Crew. Will be with you all the way. x clare t

  2. Karen Lacroix

    Posted Thursday 25 Sep at 17:20 | Permalink

    Good luck David (and the whole team). I will follow your trip for the next ten days.

    Yesterday there was a spitch from Martin Rose (Director Canada, British Council) at the Canadian High Commission in London for the the opening of the exhibition – The Global Change. There was beautiful images visualizing the landscapes of our planet changing.

    Martin talked about his trip he did with the Canadian students (Cape Farewell/ Canada) over North America for the past ten days. He said it was a fantastic experience. Susi Arnott told me how excited the experience was with the students and the whole crew.

    Both Martin and Susi had an amazing and powerful energy from this adventure.

    Hope I can joined one day.

    Good luck everyone.

    Karen Lacroix
    http://www.karenlacroix.com

  3. Sandy Clipsham

    Posted Thursday 25 Sep at 21:26 | Permalink

    Whoa – that is some heavy artillery for shooting (photos). I seriously hope you’re not shrouded in fog for the next two weeks!

    This is an impressive website and I look forward to following the expedition blogs over the coming days. Bon voyage,

    Sandy

  4. Ben Mills

    Posted Thursday 25 Sep at 21:48 | Permalink

    good luck to you all – sounds like an awesome effort. lots of us ordinary folk are watching and rooting for you – hold on!
    Ben
    ps say hi to me old mate vick!

  5. liz dudley

    Posted Friday 26 Sep at 11:39 | Permalink

    What a life-changer you are on…creative minds have got the power to use their language to shout loud enough to be heard…enjoy the journey.

  6. Olly Watts

    Posted Friday 26 Sep at 13:50 | Permalink

    Hi David – You inspired our Bern Convention meeting in Strasbourg recently – may this trip help inspire the world towards a better place.

  7. Dan Harvey

    Posted Monday 29 Sep at 01:00 | Permalink

    Hi David and company, so finally have managed to get on line here in Sao Paulo, looks like your having fun, even with the larger ship I thought sea sickness might be a problem – hope that everyone finds their sea legs or that you can get on land a fair bit. The Arctic seems so far a way from this crazy dirty city, too many people, too much traffic, and terrible air quality! Seems no one cares about their enviroment here, let alone climate change. Hope to meet with Charlie’s friend Andres Furtardo from Greenpeace next week, and hopefully give a talk about our works and the Cape Farewell project once our show opens. Having a few problems with projector here – burns through the negative in 5 seconds – hope to resolve that tomorrow!!
    Take Care and send my Love to everyone and have a truly creative time.
    All Best Dan xx

  8. Birdie

    Posted Tuesday 7 Oct at 23:50 | Permalink

    David

    I am moving at a quick pace. I want to do this as a print & billboard ad campaign that carries the message, and creates PSA’s that can be broadcast. I need to find a sponsor. Will contact, Ad Busters. Remember the Beniton ads that provoked a big response? Right, so…am looking for a sponsor like that. Um. The end product for the PSA’s will be…shot on a soundstage, with film of an iceberg with a projected image of a 747 taking off. Seated at the base of the screen will be an actual (retired) airline pilot, under a spotlight. He/she will announce facts about carbon emissions & air travel.

    Another one will involve a truck projected on an iceberg and a truck driver seated in front of the screen, and so on….

    I am researching rail lines to alaska, bio diesel for the gennies to run the projectors and am looking for a fishing boat that may run off bio diesel, etc….

    Palin doesn’t see me coming in her rear view mirror, but I have definitely hit the ground, running…