ENGLISH VERSION

My interest is to approach the margin of science from a tangent angle so that the words, although technical, hold poetic meaning. To come upon a certain technique is also to discover elements that, once articulated, create a specific language. A fiction that describes a technique, that leads to an historic period of time, that suggests another invention, that turns into another fiction. In this circular path, the parts fit together turning into the perfect piece of the machinery. Th is bitácora is the story of the trajectory of all the loose pieces that fi ll the conceptual abyss* of a photographic trip to the North Pole; a story of fiction and adventure. (Letícia Ramos)

First observation: June 17th to June 22nd 2008.

An imprecise accumulation of lines and letters, moreover chaotic. Ondulated letters and lines that look like roads. Roads to nowhere. Interrupted. (J. T.)

“The concept of celestial globe

Convention to cognize the Stars

Study the projection shelter of the blue globe

North Pole and South Pole constellations

Zenith Equator

Ursa Major – Polar Star: serves as a compass when there are no clouds (clear sky)

4 X½ Pole Sun Light Blue - Crux

90º Zenith latitude

Axis seen during the night when Crux appears

When there are no stars in the sky, the compass points to the Magnetic North Pole

Morning Star

Dalva Venus

Vesper

Angle measurement: sextant and octant”

*(Page of the undated logbook that belonged to Spanish seaman apprentice Enrique Contreras, obtained in 2008 at the La Latina Flea Market, Madrid. Adapted translation by researcher and collaborator Marcio Harum for Bitácora Project.) (M. H.)

ADRIFT – STORIES OF POLAR EXPLORERS

The Arctic is turning more duo-toned for me influenced by the black and white records of the early expeditions to the Polar Regions that I found. I think about Hurley’s diary. He was the photographer of the unbelievable expedition of Shackelton to Antarctica. I think about the heavy cameras, the glass negatives, the improvised dark rooms and the “archeological” places carefully projected to store their photographic relics so that other explorers, in search of their paths, could fi nd records of the adventure. Those polar explorers went through an intense exercise of adaptation, technical and poetic invention. The preparation for a trip, in itself, is a baggage full of possibilities.

I look at the Polaroid Lupa 6 cameras lined up over the table of my atelier and I can see the heavy cameras of polar explorers such as Hurley, Andrée and Amundsen. Explorers of incredible missions, persistent photographers that captured impressive images; men attached to their logbooks, where they registered everything till the last moment, with their last breath. In this challenge of constructing a polar photographic camera, times and stories are mixed. (L. R.)

Th ird and fourth observation: From July 16th to July 20 th and from July 27th to August 3rd. The letters move from day to day, they change places, size, they multiply, they vanish and show up again; sometimes they are alone and isolated, other days, they come closer to one another, and later they return to their solitude, being trapped by concentric circles that seem to swirl around them like small tornados. The wind modifies time (time known as climate) but it also seems to alter space. The wind shortens distances bringing observers closer. (J. T.)

Recycling

Usually, the recycled equipment that I use for the construction of my cameras is a result of technological speculation that rapidly becomes obsolete. They are objects in a state “in between”, suspended on a timeline, left in the middle of the road.

During the 70’s, the Polaroid camera represented the instant, spontaneous, immediate image. In the present context, the camera maintains those same principles to materialize the image on the paper from a unique object and, probably, also bears the same symbolic force.

Nowadays the small portable cameras produce an immediate virtual image. For this project I choose the Polaroid camera, in search of an instant poetic record, like a notebook, a unique image, irreproducible. The Polaroid camera I will use in the expedition is the Lupa 6, a camera used for 3x4 portraits. It has 6 lenses that produce 6 stills at the same time. In relation with the object they photograph, those lenses have its centre slightly dislocated from the center. When placed in a fi lm sequence, they reproduce the feeling of movement.

I like thinking of the idea that a photographic camera made for instant portraits is going to photograph landscapes. In the end, all the cameras I construct turn up to be disposable. Independently of the time frame or complexity of the project, they are used only once and for a specific image. (L. R.)

… I’ve been in Tierra del Fuego, since I disembarked the HMS Beagle in June of 1834. I don’t feel like a deserter. The reasons that led me to this hard decision have nothing to do with any dissatisfaction regarding Mr. Darwin’s mission. What really counts is the fact that I couldn’t surrender to the dazzling landscape of this region: Patagonia Austral, voyage through the Strait of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego, Beagle Channel, Cape Horn, Islands of the South Atlantic Ocean, Antarctica.

There is no other natural beauty more astonishing than the woods bended by the wind, the long-legged birds flying over the line of snow on the mountain range horizon. One of the most spectacular things of this world is the descent of the glacier into the infi nite blue sea and the glacier lakes. I spend some time during the day analyzing the transportation of the ice blocks by the currents, and also the sudden changes in the polar wind direction.

A fantastic feeling arose the second time I crossed the Strait of Magellan’s eastern passage: I wanted to stay captive by that scenery. In that moment, I realized I would remain in that place without a fi xed period of time to return to civilization. I would stay around the mysterious mountains of petrified woods, dwell with the marine storms that make the sky turn deep blue, transforming day into night, alarming the plain ravines with its small and beautiful wild animals.

While anchored in Gregory Bay, I had my fi rst contact with the famous gigantic Patagonians. These “fueguinos” are reserved and, eyed from a 50 feet distance, also seem hospitable. They dress with large guanaco fur blankets and use their long hair loosen over the shoulders. They are 1.80 meters high and the majority of the men and women are tall. They paint their bodies with long white strips, as a way of protection from the low temperatures. Captain Fitzroy confi rmed me that they give more importance to English tobacco than to navigation tools. They frequently communicate with the whaling-ships’ crews. They own many horses, and even the children have their own.

It’s nice to perceive that Christmas is near, that means fi nally summer has started. When I arrived at the beginning of winter, the atmosphere was absolutely extreme, stronger than ice. In my whole life, I had never been confronted with such a desolate weather, not even during the trip by sea to Greenland in the winter of 1831. Enduring the sharp cold wind, I experienced a kind of destruction that seemed more like the scenery of a war. The snowy background with the Sarmiento Valley, a 2.070 meters high mountain, exhibits itself as a spectacle of austral beauty; nature’s perfection. During the following weeks, and as an exploratory method, I will be camping at this topographic elevation. According to my plans, the rough climbing will take 4 days. I intend to describe the sumptuous 360o landscape that will surround me with my drawings.

* (Letter fragment written by HMS Beagle’s sailor Mark Harris in Tierra del Fuego, dated on December 1834 and addressed to Laetitia Branches from Ireland. The letter was found in 2007, at a San Telmo antique shop, Buenos Aires, by the researcher and collaborator Marcio Harum. Adapted translation for Bitácora Project.) (M. H.)

BIPOLAR DIDACTIC: THE NORTH POLE IS SEA, THE SOUTH POLE IS LAND.

Geopolitical fiction

“The last ‘terra incognita’ is going to disappear. The immense silence, the infi nite horizons, the vast North Pole whiteness and its absence will be substituted for regions accessed by men with their noises, their combustion engines, their banks, their containers. We will assist to a strange phenomenon: a subversion of the geography will come unwound before our eyes.”

Gilles Lapouge, 2010

More than 300 years ago, polar explorers lost their lives, dedicated to heroism. Beyond the aim of conquering the North Pole, the expeditions also had the objective of discovering a north-south passage, commercial routes to connect east and west that could become important for the 20th century and essential for the 21st century. The current geopolitical issue of the North Pole becomes part of the imaginary map of my expedition. Who would have imagined after so many years that, as a consequence of polar thaw caused by human influence, those passages would open naturally?

Th is mythic territory, now accessible, is re-mapped over the optic of new energetic frontiers. A new chapter is opening, a new globe design.

In 2007, a Russian polar expedition aboard a nuclear submarine placed — with help of a mechanic arm a flag on the ground where the country considers their geographic sub-aquatic border is. It was considered an historic event, with live transmission on the national TV network and official declarations such as: “for Russia, this event is as important as the day they planted a flag on the moon.”

Th is expedition ends a cycle where the mystic image of the North Pole region was an imaginary dessert of white ice, the edge of the global, the end of the world.

POETIC ENGINEERING  SENSITIVE CARPENTRY

I think that the best way to construct this camera is to create a structure inspired by the early wooden submarines. The construction materials will be the same ones used in naval engineering, more precisely, those for model construction: marine plywood, glue and fiber. The camera was projected separately and divided in: frontal lenses system, bellows, chassis, hull. By recommendation of my friend, ship constructor Pedro, I chose to build the hull with a construction technique called “clinker built”. Th is type of technique, naturally waterproof, dispenses the use of fiber as a coating material and was used to construct wooden submarines. My “wind camera” is inspired by the early submarine models and escafandros* designed by Leonardo da Vinci, Cornelius Drebbel, Simon Lake and John Lethbridge. The similarity between the construction techniques of these early inventors and the ones applied to Bitácora Project is the simplicity of the tools and materials used, and also an engineering style where the inventions are materialized on illustrations, assuming a fictional tone. (L. R.)

121st day.

Tomorrow morning I will start the job of measuring precisely the immense natural canal course of the Cassiquiare River which connects the hydrographic basin of two rivers, the Orinoco in Venezuela and the Amazon in Brazil. I carry with me a chest full with sextants, barometers and a valuable tacheometer. I’m very alert with the stories I’ve been listening from the Indians about the electric fishes. I imagine the horses will have some difficulty to cross the waters infected by those strange eels. Th is is one example of the many subjects regarding the inhospitable Amazonian region that fascinates me. I would like to provide and send to Germany as soon as possible, a specimen of electric fish for study of dissection. One of my goals is to reveal what kind of dynamo, what kind of energy is produced by the violent discharge generated inside this fish. Maybe, a dissected specimen could be sent to the Natural Science Academy of Madrid in retribution and appreciation for the support given by King Carlos IV so that I could embark to South America last year. During my stay in this location I will seek to develop other theme of study related to the causes and effects of the diversity of colors of the Amazonian rivers. The urge to understand the difficulties to navigate the Amazonian river and its affluents is a consequence of the large number of waterfalls in the area.

*(Facsimile — Documentary snippet written by German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Dated in 1800 and shown at Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Haus Amerika- Gedenkbibliothek, in 2004. Transcription and adapted translation by collaborator Marcio Harum for Bitácora Project.) (M. H.)

Polar Chemistry

Considering the Arctic’s low temperatures and the camera lenses low luminosity, Fuji’s fi lm FP – 100c, ISO 100/21 to 20, is not the ideal for this expedition. But, as everything is a matter of invention, I asked Walter —who used to be a technician at the old Polaroid factory— what should I do in relation to the chemical temperature and the development time. Walter suggested I should take on board a hairdryer to warm up the chemical that comes with the photographic paper. I think it’s a good idea, but not defi nitely because it’s possible that the negative curve modifies severely. I did a test on the laboratory refrigerator and I was surprised to see that the photograph tended to the blue color. I have to think more about the problem regarding lens condensation. In the meantime, I will create a box for the camera that will stay on the ship’s deck so that the temperature remains static. I will also construct a bellows for the camera body. In case it’s necessary, with that bellows I will have the autonomy to change the lenses, take off the lenses, make a pinhole, and even change the original design. Now that the camera exists, the next step is to take it to the North Pole and fi nally, photograph the winds. (L.

R.)

Official Letter

Honorable Sir,

The proposal of creating a machine “capable of recording chromatic nuances of the landscape, based on the influence of the wind” is not very important in terms of information about the work. What is of interest indeed is to learn that the artist is studying and reinventing the mechanical structure of Polaroid cameras, taking in what this technology represented when it emerged—the possibility of instant, immediate recording—, and relating this sort of record to the notes and technologies used by the travelers who set off precariously to the North and South Poles in the late 19 th century. In other words, there is not a chance that this machine will not fulfi ll its purpose, considering that the latter is less important than the machine itself. And the image that results from this apparatus will be the only image that could result from it.

G. M. São Paulo, March 2010.

Prospectus

BITACORA* Project is an artistic project inspired by Beaufort’s Scale and its descriptions of the effect of the wind on land and sea. The artist will build a “camera-observatory” capable of collecting samples of the Arctic Pole landscape in order to make her own scale create a new poetic and chromatic classification of the landscape based on the influence of the wind. In 2010, Bitácora Project won the Marc Ferrez Grant for photographic creation given by Funarte and was selected to take part in the artistic residency “The Arctic Circle 2011,” a multidisciplinary expedition that will travel around the Arctic Pole on a sailing ship.

BITÁCORA – Spanish name given to a case or stand on the deck of a ship, generally mounted in front of the helm where the logbooks are placed. The logbook (cuaderno de bitácora) is a notebook where sailors record atmosphere and wind conditions, operational data related to the ship’s machinery, navigation velocity, traveled distances, astronomic observations. The logbook registers any important fact that occurs during the period of observation of the landscape.

FRANCIS BEAUFORT – English navy officer and hydrographer. In the year 1805 he creates the Beaufort Wind Scale to classify and quantify the force of the winds and its effects on land and sea. His classification doesn’t demand the use of scientific technical apparels and it’s based on the observation of the landscape. The Beaufort’s Scale distinguishes itself from other intensity scales by its extremely narrative and poetic descriptions.

SCAPHANDER – Diving suit made of rubber and iron, used by divers to submerge in deep waters. Th is structure communicates with the surface through a conduct that assures free breathing and resists the pressure of water. Divers that use this suit are called “escafandristas”.

SYNOPTIC CHARTS – The term “synoptic” comes from the Greek synoptikós. It means to summarize the principal parts or a general view of the whole. In meteorology, this term is used to name charts that are elaborated by observing phenomena such as cyclones and anti-cyclones, frontal systems, masses of air dislocations, jetstreams, low and high pressure systems, etc.

LUPA 6 – Six-lens model Polaroid camera. Created to take 6 instant pictures, commonly used for ID portrait photography. Has aperture settings of 22, 16, 11, 8 and disposable chassis. Launched by Polaroid during the 80’s and still used in small photography shops in Brazil’s countryland cities.

CONCEPTUAL ABYSS – Concept cited by Gabriela Motta in her critical text on Letícia Ramos for Dossier Videobrasil. “Whereas the visual problem the artist presents us with is the landscape – a theme quite complex in itself – there is also the issue of the audiovisual equipment that captures the images of that landscape. These machines, specially built for recording a certain landscape, condensate the scientific and imaginative effort of foretelling what one wishes to capture and elaborating the technology capable of doing so. That is, in the beginning there is nothing, neither camera nor image. Between the asepsis of that which is visual, distant, quasi-abstract, the image-landscape recorded by the camera, and the fi lmic apparatus fi lled with physical materiality, there lies a conceptual abyss that the artist insists on facing using nails and poetry, wood and music, drill and phasma.”

POLAR MIRAGE – The “superior image”, also called fata morgana , is an optical illusion that occurs in polar regions. In calm weather, the separation between air layers of different temperatures close to a surface can act like a refracting lens, producing a series of both inverted and erect images, over which the image seems to float. The objects seen on the horizon become elongated and elevated. The name fata morgana is a reference to the belief that King Arthur’s half sister was a witch who had the power to change her appearance.

M. H. is Marcio Harum (São Paulo, Brazil), art critic, curator and an inspired interlocutor that grew up reading Jules Verne’s Extraordinary Stories. In this publication he writes fiction texts.

J. T. is Josefi na Trotta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), writer, scriptwriter and dedicated correspondent whose expeditious and incomprehensible handwriting forces her to use a typewriter machine.

G. M. is Gabriela Motta (Porto Alegre, Brazil), art critic.

Beaufort Wind Scale

Brief Name For use at sea For use on land

0 Calm Sea like a mirror

1 Light air Ripples like scales are formed, but without foam crests

2 Light breeze Small wavelets, still short but more pronounced. Crests have a glassy appearance and do not break

3 Gentle breeze Large wavelets. Crests begin to break. Foam of glassy appearance. Perhaps scattered white horses

4 Moderate breeze Small waves, becoming longer, fairly frequent white horses

5 Fresh breeze Moderate waves, taking a more pronounced form, many white horses are formed. Chance of some spray

6 Strong breeze Large waves begin to form, the white foam crests are more extensive everywhere. Probably some spray

7 Near gale Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along the direction of the wind

8 Gale Moderately high waves, edges of crest break into spindrift , foam is blown in well marked streak along the direction of the wind

9 Strong gale High waves. Dense streaks of foam along the direction of the wind. Crests of waves begin to topple, tumble and roll over. Spray may affect visibility

10 Storm Very high waves with long over hanging crests. The resulting foam in great patches is blown in dense white streaks along the direction of the wind. On the whole, the surface of the sea takes on a white appearance. The “tumbling” of the sea becomes heavy and shock-like. Visibility affected

11 Violent storm Exceptionally high waves (small and medium sized ships might be lost for a time behind the waves). The sea is completely covered with long white patches of foam lying along the direction of the wind. Everywhere, the edges of the waves are blown into froth. Visibility affected

12 Hurricane The air is fi lled with foam and spray. Sea completely white with driving spray, visibility very seriously affected

Smoke rises vertically

Direction of the wind shown by smoke drift but not wind vanes

Wind felt on ace, leaves rustle, ordinary wind vanes moved by the wind

Leaves and small twigs in constant motion, wind extends light flags

Wind raises dust and loose paper, small branches move

Small trees in leaf start to sway, crested wavelets on inland waters

Large branches in motion, whistling in telegraph wires, umbrellas used with difficulty

Whole trees in motion. Inconvenient to walk against the wind

Twigs break from trees, difficult to walk

Slight structural damage occurs, chimney pots and slates removed

Trees uprooted, considerable structural damage occurs

Widespread damage

Widespread damage

LETÍCIA RAMOS (Santo Antônio da Patrulha, 1976)

É artista e videomaker, cursou arquitetura e urbanismo na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) e cinema na Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP). Seu foco de investigação artística é a criação de aparatos fotográficos próprios para a captação e reconstrução do movimento e sua apresentação em vídeo. Seja por suspensão temporal, seja por deslocamento dos pontos de vista, seu trabalho baseia-se nas pesquisas sobre a formação da imagem e as tecnologias de registro do movimento. Seus trabalhos já foram expostos em importantes mostras e galerias, como a Tate Modern em Londres, 16º Videobrasil em São Paulo e o Laboratório de Arte Alameda, México. Em 2009, seu trabalho CRONOPIOS foi selecionado pelo prêmio Rumos de Artes Visuais do Instituto Itaú Cultural e realizou uma itinerância de exposições pelo Brasil, incluindo a Casa Andrade Muricy em Curitiba, o Museu de Arte Moderna em Salvador, Itaú Cultural em São Paulo e Paço Imperial do Rio de Janeiro. Em 2009-10, realizou a exposição individual ERBF ‐ estação radiobasefotográfica , dentro do programa de exposições do Centro Cultural São Paulo. Recentemente foi selecionada para a residência “The Artic Circle” para desenvolver o Projeto Bitácora a bordo de um veleiro no Polo Norte. Também é ganhadora do Prêmio Marc Ferrez 2010 – Funarte para criação fotográfica.

Letícia Ramos is a videomaker and artist who lives in São Paulo, Brazil. Studied Architecture and Urbanism at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and Film at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), in São Paulo. Her artistic investigation focuses on the creation of her own photographic apparatus to capture and reconstruct movement and its ulterior representation in video. Her works have been presented in important exhibitions and galleries; Tate Gallery in London; the 16º Videobrasil in São Paulo; the Laboratório de Arte Alameda, Mexico. In 2009, was selected by the Instituto Itaú Cultural for the award Rumos of Visual Arts and her work CRONOPIOS , within the collective exhibition Trilhas do Desejo, was exhibited at the Casa Andrade Muricy in Curitiba, Museu de Arte Moderna in Salvador, Itaú Cultural in São Paulo and the Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro. In 2009‐10 she had the individual exhibition ERBF‐ radio based photographic station at Centro Cultural São Paulo as part of the annual exhibition programme. She has recently been selected for the “Artic Circle Residency” to develop a project named Bitacora , which will take place on board of a sailboat on the North Pole. This project won the Marc Ferrez 2010 award by Funarte for photographic creation.

Caderno de bitácora

Letícia Ramos

Publicação/ Publication

Edições397

Textos/ Texts

Letícia Ramos

Josefina Trotta

Marcio Harum

Conversas com/ Interviews with

Pedro Terra

Jose Roberto Leite

Projeto gráfico/ Graphic design

Marcelo Amorim

Assistente de artista/ Artist assistant

Deco Farkas

Registro fotográfico/ Photos

Letícia Ramos

Deco Farkas

Edição e tradução/ Editing and translation

Josefina Trotta

Revisão/ Proofreading

Érico Melo

Produção editorial/ Editorial production

Isabella Rjeille

Agradecimentos/ Acknowledgements

Aos meus pais, Lauro Ramos e Maria do Carmo Passos de Azambuja Ramos, e querido irmão Lucas Ramos. A todos os amigos que compartilharam esta jornada, em especial a Josefina Trotta, Camila Groch, Laura Futuro, Alessandra Marder, Rose Blagden, Gabriela Motta, Marcio Harum, Luiz Roque, Gabriela Ribeiro, Roberta Segura, Ateliê Novo, Ademir Correa, Impossible Project NY, Pedro Terra, José Roberto Leite, Theo Craveiro, Yara Richter, Sofia Fan e toda a equipe do Itaú Cultural.

Apoio

Realização

Distribuição gratuita, proibida a venda

Título

Formato

Tipografia

Miolo

Número de páginas

Tiragem

Caderno de bitácora - Letícia Ramos

15 x 21 cm

Typewriter,Handwriting e Minion Pro offset 120 g/m2

76

500

Este livro foi produzido em março de 2011.