Author Archives: David Buckland

Finding this place

10 days of constant curiosity both from the scientists and artists have run me/us ragged. Western Greenland/Arctic has worked its magic, the debate has been constant and fledgling art processes have engaged and been executed, all of which have been well diarised in the blogs for this expedition.

Intellectual climate input was achieved with a series of daily talks: two given by the onboard scientists, three by the two Inuit guides and Dr Ko de Korte, Sunand Prasad tackled contraction and convergence, Quentin Cooper gave a great talk on ‘Cape Farewell’, Joe Smith on Carbon Trading and market response, Ryuichi Sakamoto, KT Tunstall, Chris Wainwright and Francesca Galeazzi led a lively discussion on the artists response/creativity and a final talk led by Marcus Brigstocke and Joe Smith addressed just how important it is to feel ‘up’ and empowered by things climate rather than crawl into a hole of despair. These were focussed discussions but all this input led to an endless dialogue in small breakout sessions where we all talked one on one over dinner and wine (and vodka). Lively!
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Ko and David

Ko de Korte and David Buckland
Ko de Korte, our expedition leader from Oceanwide Expeditions, and Cape Farewell director David Buckland.

The longest of long days

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Steaming through the fjord leaving Kangerlussuaq, the journey begins.
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Almost ready to go

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’.
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Expedition route: Kangerlussuaq to Disko Bay

Map of Greenland showing Disko Bay

This Thursday an extraordinary crew of artists, scientists, architects, comedians, musicians, playwrights, composers, engineers, film-makers and journalists come together to journey aboard the science research vessel – Grigory Mikheev, from Kangerlussuaq to Disko Bay. We will voyage across the front of the Jakobshavn Glacier, one of Greenland’s largest glaciers moving at a faster rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons of ice every day. The expedition will continue west, towards Canada where oceanographers will measure an ocean tract across the Labrador Current before returning to Kangerlussuaq on the 6 October. Follow us online as we embark on a journey to this extraordinary landscape. Click to read more about the expedition and our planned route.
View the proposed route map › PDF 1.7Mb