Terra Nova, by FOUND by Grampian Hospitals Art Trust

FOUND

Terra Nova

Grampian Hospitals Art Trust Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Foresterhill Aberdeen AB25 2ZN 01224 552429 grampian.hospitalsarttrust@nhs.net www.ghat-art.org.uk Registered Charity SCO16910

This project has been supported by: Chemikal Underground Records Creative Scotland NHS Grampian Paul Hamlyn Foundation University of Aberdeen Special Collections and Museums Vibrant Aberdeen

FOUND

Terra Nova

Contents

3-4

Introduction by Grampian Hospitals Art Trust

5-6

Image: Terra Nova exhibition (Mike Davidson)

7-8

Terra Nova by FOUND

9-10

Image: Following On (Dr William Clark Souter)

11-12

Interview with FOUND

Image: Antarctic Beauties (FOUND) Image: -77.6361805,166.4173336 (FOUND)

Image: Antarctic Beauties (Dr William Clark Souter) Image: -77.6361805,166.4173336 (Google)

Image: Following On (FOUND) Image: -77.844979,166.6708979 (FOUND)

Image: Following On (Dr William Clark Souter) Image: -77.844979,166.6708979 (Google)

Image: Ice Bound (FOUND) Image: -77.8457772,166.6413416 (FOUND)

Image: Ice Bound (Dr William Clark Souter) Image: -77.8457772,166.6413416 (Google)

Image: Observation Hill and the Gap (FOUND) Image: -77.843258,166.6587007 (FOUND)

Image: Observation Hill and the Gap (Dr William Clark Souter) Image: -77.843258,166.6587007 (Google)

Image: An Everyday Scene (FOUND) Image: -77.8391939,166.6668828 (FOUND)

Image: An Everyday Scene (Dr William Clark Souter) Image: -77.8391939,166.6668828 (Google)

23-24

Erebus by Kevin Williamson

25-26

Terra Nova limited edition 12” vinyl record

27-28

Image: Terra Nova exhibition (Mike Davidson)

Biography of Dr William Clark Souter

Image: Dr William Clark Souter (DC Thomson)

31-34

The Doctor’s Story by Dr William Clark Souter

Image: Terra Nova exhibition text (Mike Davidson)

Introduction by Grampian Hospitals Art Trust For selected projects developed for The Suttie Arts Space the intention is to draw on often untold stories that relate to the locality and specifically the Foresterhill Campus, where Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is situated. Grampian Hospitals Art Trust (GHAT) approached FOUND in early 2015 to develope a project in which they would introduce the story of Dr William Clark Souter to a new audience. GHAT commissioned FOUND on the strength of numerous previous projects, such as Cybraphon, which is in the collections of National Museum Scotland and on display in the science and technology galleries, and is a ‘moody autonomous robot band in a box’. A large part of the appeal of FOUND was the sense that they may produce work that brought together different technologies, triggered in part by the audience within The Suttie Arts Space. Dr Souter travelled to Antarctica in 1903 on board The Terra Nova to rescue Captain Scott’s RRS Discovery from ice. Dr Souter was a junior doctor based at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when he was asked to travel with the expedition. He was a keen photographer, and was tasked with documenting the expedition, the crew, their shared lunches of lemons and biscuits, journeys by dog sled, and particularly of pioneering ballistics work to force a safe path through ice led by Captain Harry McKay of The Terra Nova. Dr Souter’s photographs are housed within Aberdeen University Special Collections, as is a collection of tools and research from his professional life as an ophthalmic surgeon. The hand-written descriptions on the back of each photograph he took during The Terra Nova expedition became an important reference point for the project. They informed the direction in which FOUND introduced thoughts around image making, the methods, tools, and sense of exploration between the early 1900’s to present day, through the use of Dr Souter’s photographs, digital imaging, and of ‘desktop exploration’ via Google Street View. The project culminated in the exhibition Terra Nova, 12th December 3

2015 – 14th February 2016, a 12” vinyl record Terra Nova and this publication. FOUND Collective FOUND are an Edinburgh-based art collective and band with a membership that changes over time. Currently, the art collective primarily consists of Ziggy Campbell and Simon Kirby, whereas the band features Ziggy Campbell and Kev Sim. Previous projects include: - Great Circle, an iPhone app for the Scotland Can Make It! Project, with Chemikal Underground Records, 2014 - Tasting Notes, a collaboration with Dewar’s whisky to create an interactive artwork hand-crafted from hardwoods and brass, with songs from some of Scotland and India’s finest musicians, 2013 - Cybraphon, an interactive version of a mechanical band in a box, inspired by early 19th century mechanical bands, which is now housed at National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, 2009

Terra Nova by FOUND Ziggy Campbell and Simon Kirby Dr William Clark Souter, an ophthalmic surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, served as ship’s surgeon on the whaling vessel The Terra Nova at the start of the last century. The Terra Nova was sent south in 1903 to rescue the stranded Captain Scott, ice bound in his ship The Discovery off the coast of Antarctica. Souter took a series of amateur photographs of the rescue, but these were to lie undiscovered among his personal papers for a hundred years. These photographs, and the hundred year span of time that they reach back across, were the starting point for this album and accompanying images. The 100 years between Souter’s photographs being taken and uncovered have seen a remarkable change in the way we think about exploration and the idea of discovering a terra nova or “new land”. Not long after Souter’s trip, the great age of the Victorian explorer came to an end. The Antarctic silence was broken forever. Captured images allowed photographers to stake a claim to the land more effectively than planting a flag, but simultaneously eroded its mystique. Half a century later in 1957, a new era of grand exploration was initiated with the start of the space race. Ultimately, photographs allowed US astronauts to lay claim to conquering the moon a little over a decade later. However, it was the existence of photographs of the lunar surface that ultimately led to the loss of public interest in continued human exploration of space. Once again, the sublime quickly becomes mundane. Six years before Souter’s photographs were uncovered, a team of Russian scientists started drilling down through the Antarctic ice over Lake Vostok, an underground lake 60 degrees west of where the Discovery was ice bound a century earlier. Their aim was to prepare for possible missions to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. In early 2015, having penetrated over two miles of ice, the scientists retrieved a litre of fresh water that had been isolated from the rest of the planet for up to 25 million years. This was the year that Antarctica’s, perhaps the world’s, last great wilderness succumbed.

Around the same time, in 2007 the internet search giant, Google, launched Street View, a technology allowing users to explore city centres virtually through the use of images captured from a special fleet of camera cars. In 2013 the company rolled-out the use of a backpack camera to allow imagery to be captured on foot. As a result, Street View now extends to Antarctica. You can tread the same paths that Scott and Souter did, look out across the bay that The Discovery was stranded in, and walk up to within sight of the slopes of Mount Erebus, all with 360 degree views and high definition colour. What’s startling is how quickly this becomes banal. There are a lot of muddy tracks, piles of industrial equipment and low-rise buildings scattered around. Wander about a bit and you might come across the hut that Scott built while his ship was locked in ice, although you’ll find it somewhat lost amongst the grubby clutter of the landscape. So, at the end of the century since Souter’s trip, we have one of the world’s largest companies making the biggest land-grab of them all, photographing the planet from every conceivable angle, allowing us all to be armchair explorers. This, more than anything, instils in us the troubling notion that there is nothing anymore that remains unknown.

Interview with FOUND Ziggy

So Terra Nova, our exhibition, that’s the title of the project, and Terra Nova is the name of the ship William Clark Souter was on. He was a 24 year old surgeon who took part in the rescue mission of Discovery, he was on the Terra Nova and he was also a keen photographer so he took these amazing photographs of the rescue mission. Things like Mount Erebus and Discovery itself, icebergs, penguins, all that kind of stuff. So they’ve formed, certainly the starting point of our exhibition.

GHAT

How did you get from Dr Souter’s photographs to what FOUND have developed for this installation?

Simon

We took those original Souter photographs and we decided we wanted somehow to turn them into sound, so we were working on techniques to take photographic image and trigger samples of ice and other arctic sounds like storms and so on with those images. And in the process of trying to work out how to do that, we hit upon this method of extracting lines of light and dark out of these images and what you see in the exhibition is the side effect of that process, these kind of strips of pixels stretched out to make these abstract landscapes, and the music was written to accompany the sounds that these pictures make. But in the process of doing this we also realised that you can look at the same scenes that Souter looked at as they look now, just by going to Google Street View. So Google’s reach has extended to the Antarctic. We decided to also use screengrabs from Google Street View of the same locations as another source of the images and the sounds in the exhibition.

GHAT

What do feel about having an exhibition in a hospital, did that affect the way you were going to make the work?

Ziggy

It’s quite interesting having an exhibition in a hospital because it is open 24/7 and I think it is a really nice thing. I’m lucky enough I haven’t spent much time in any hospitals, but I think if I had to hang out in a hospital, I’d want to come somewhere and take in some art. The other thing is we have to think about sound, because a lot of our work features sound, so you have to think about not driving people bananas with really difficult, challenging sound work. So we’ve tried to make it quite ethereal, and glacial and quite mellow so that we don’t, like I say, drive people bananas.

Simon

I think there is a real opportunity to have an audience that isn’t a traditional art going audience as well so the people we would get, hopefully to come in and see the Terra Nova exhibition, aren’t the people who would typically go out to a traditional art gallery and see this work. And I find that quite exciting, and also the fact that it is open 24 hours a day, and I think that is a really interesting aspect of this space.

Simon Kirby and Ziggy Campbell 12

Erebus by Kevin Williamson Latitude 77 degrees south of the equator 25 minutes and 30 seconds Longitude 167 degrees east of the Greenwich Meridian 27 minutes and 30 seconds She is the love that calls your name She is the echo in your brain She is Strombolian and CAMP She is your better nature’s lamp She is the tongue of fire and ice She is the clasp of glacial vice She is the frost around your heart She’s where the thaw will surely start She is the landscape of your dreams She is erotically obscene She is the cyclops and the cave She is the mission and the grave She is majestic grim and fun She is the one who’ll never run She is magnetic like the pole She is the lantern in my soul She is your siren’s spectral call She is chaos, black and fall She is Mount Terror’s loyal friend She is where everything will end She is the kiss and final breath She is the lover’s walk of death She is the darkest shade of white She is my loneliness tonight On November 28th 1979, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 carrying 237 passengers and 20 crew toured the skies above Antarctica. Sir

Edmund Hillary, conquerer of Everest, was the scheduled guide for the sightseeing trip, but due to other commitments Hillary stood down and his friend and climbing colleague, Peter Mulgrew, took his place. At 12:49 PM the DC-10 passenger jet flew into whiteout conditions over Ross Island and a ground proximity system notified Captain Jim Collins that the aircraft was flying dangerously close to solid terrain. Six seconds later, Air New Zealand flight 901 crashed into the western flank of Mount Erebus, the most southerly active volcano on the planet. There were no survivors. She is the love that calls your name She is the echo in your brain She is Strombolian and CAMP She is your better nature’s lamp She is the tongue of fire and ice She is the clasp of glacial vice She is the frost around your heart She’s where the thaw will surely start She is the landscape of your dreams She is erotically obscene She is the cyclops and the cave She is the mission and the grave She is majestic grim and fun She is the one who’ll never run She is magnetic like the pole She is the lantern in my soul She is your siren’s spectral call She is chaos, black and fall She is Mount Terror’s loyal friend She is where everything will end She is the kiss and final breath She is the lover’s walk of death She is the darkest shade of white She is my loneliness tonight

TERRA NOVA Limited edition of 300 12â&#x20AC;? vinyl records Ziggy Campbell: vocals, guitar, bass, synths, piano, drum machines Simon Kirby: algorithms Kevin Sim: sampler, synths, drum machines Kevin Williamson: voice The Terra Nova 12â&#x20AC;? vinyl record contains the full-length composition by FOUND, and poetry by Kevin Williamson, that featured as part of the exhibition installation Terra Nova, at The Suttie Arts Space. Released via Chemikal Underground Records, Glasgow Terra Nova was produced by FOUND at The Lengths in the Highlands

Biography of Dr William Clark Souter Dr William Clark Souter was born in Perth, 24 February 1880, son of Alexander Souter, a hatter and clothier. He graduated with first class honours from the University of Aberdeen, MB ChB 1903, MD 1906 and following a period of postgraduate work at Moorfields, gained the Diploma in Ophthalmology from Oxford University, 1919. After further clinical work experience at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, he was appointed to the staff of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where he remained until his retirement in 1946. He was also surgeon to the Aberdeen Eye Institution, ophthalmic surgeon to the Aberdeen Maternity Hospital and lecturer in ophthalmology in the University of Aberdeen. Dr Souter was a member of the British Medical Association for over 45 years, in whose Section of Ophthalmology he served variously as honorary secretary, vice president and president. He was awarded the Association’s Middlemore prize in 1917 and a scientific grant three years later. His membership of Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society spanned over 50 years, including a period as president, 1923 - 1933, and election as an honorary member in 1958. Shortly after his graduation from the University of Aberdeen and at the request of Sir Alexander Ogston, Dr Souter had been appointed ship’s surgeon on The Terra Nova relief expedition to the Antarctic, 1903 1904. For his service here, he became one of the first recipients of the Polar Medal, instituted in 1904 for members of Captain Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic. He married Caroline Hunter, daughter of Alexander Wilson, advocate, Aberdeen, and had four children, two of whom also trained as doctors. His eldest brother, Alexander Souter, was Professor of Humanity in the University of Aberdeen and their youngest brother, John B. Souter was an artist and portrait painter.

The Doctor’s Story by Dr William Clark Souter First published in the Dundee Year Book for 1904 (DC Thomson) Having left Hobart on 6th December 1903, we proceeded in company with The Morning, and steering a south-easterly direction encountered lovely weather until, on the day after Christmas we entered the pack ice. At 10.30am on the following day, the pack having got somewhat heavier, Captain Colbeck signalled us to take the lead. This we did, and steering an almost straight course through the pack - only dodging the extra heavy pieces - The Terra Nova did excellent work, and on the morning of New Year’s Day we reached open water again, after having repeatedly to stop and wait for The Morning to come up. Then we pushed on, and sighted Franklin Island on 4th January. That same night we again entered heavy pack ice, which seemed to block the entrance to McMurdo Sound. Here again we were asked to take the lead and we spent most of the night negotiating this troublesome pack. Next day we pushed through some very heavy pack, and reached open water at the margin of the fast ice, to which we anchored at 1pm on January 5th. At 11am Captain McKay had seen from our crows nest a flag waving on top of a distant black island, and now he could just see with the telescope the fore and maintopgallant masts of the Discovery, peeping over the ridge at Hut Point Eighteen and a half geographical miles of solid ice - varying in thickness from 3 or 4 feet at the edge to 13 or 15 feet at the Discovery - now separated the relief ships from the object of their search. Captain Scott came aboard The Terra Nova that same evening, and greeted his friend Captain McKay, whom he had met in Dundee in connection with the construction of The Discovery, Captain Scott was extremely despondent about his ship’s chances of getting out in time; and, indeed, it did not require a pessimist to take rather a mournful view; but Captain McKay said from the very first that The Discovery had to come out - and she did. Very little ice having broken away by nature, or been smashed to pieces by the heavily-protected bows of The Terra Nova, and still less by means of blasting with guncotton, the work of abandonment of the Discovery was commenced about the middle of January. It was arranged that all instruments, records, apparatus, coffee, collections of specimens, and all valuable books should be transferred in the first instance, 31

while personal gear was to come later on. As the distance was so considerable, and as congestion was to be avoided, a home-made sailcloth tent-fitted with reindeer sleeping-bags, tarpaulins, stored, and cooking utensils was erected on the ice near a glacier about half-way between the two ships. The Discoveryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s party was to pull the precious loads down to the tent, sleep there all night, and return light next day, while the united party from the relief ships came up to the tent, with more or less light loads, and returned to their own ships with the sledge loads left ready waiting. In this way the two shipsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; companies were never at the tent at the same time. Accordingly, on Sunday, the 17th of January, the first sledge party left from the relief ships heavily laden with frozen beef and fresh potatoes for the Discovery. Camp being reached about 7pm, the party, feeling rather fatigued with the unwanted exercise, had a good meal of seal steak, biscuit, butter, cheese, with plenty tea or cocoa. After a copious repast, we turned in to our reindeer sleeping bags, which we laid on the tarpaulin spread on the ice - some to read, some to sleep, some to talk, but most, of course, to enjoy the greatest of Antarctic luxuries a really good smoke. Next morning about nine, when the cook - a man from The Discovery - roused us up, our first consideration was not for our breakfast, but we went out at once to see how much the ships had come in during the night. After a big tin plateful of solid porridge and some tea and bread, we set out on our return to the ships, and it was a matter of everyday observation that The Terra Nova was always the nearer ship to the tent, and usually we made for it. On the march we suffered badly from thirst, which we used to quench by drinking lime juice whenever a halt was made. This transference of scientific gear went on till early in February, when, all the valuables haying been transported, sledging was stopped to allow of the men being able to assist in the running of a line of blast holes along the ice. Blasting, carried out by Lieutenant Royds, R.N., and Lieutenant Evans, R.N., under the direct supervision of Captain Scott, was now being carried on in a very thorough and systematic manner, and for the first two days the results looked certainly encouraging. After that the blasting seemed to have extremely little effect, for the ice was either breaking up naturally by the swell, or did not crack up at all after the blasting. 32

By February 12th we were distant from The Discovery about three miles. On the afternoon of the 14th the ice was breaking away tolerably rapidly, and several men of The Morning, who were busy digging holes in the ice, were forced to come aboard our ship, else they should have been adrift soon. It was strange to see a number of unexploded newly-dug blast holes drifting gaily out to sea, and this, too, whilst blasting was going on a good bit astern of the Terra Nova. About 4.30pm we began butting, and did an hour at it. At 6 p.m. we resumed, and Captain McKay remarked that his chance had now come, and he would take it. There was a lead of open water off Hut Point, and it was our object to burst through the intervening ice and get up there. Once there, we should be quite close to the still icebound Discovery. As we kept on butting The Discovery’s crowd began to gather round the flagstaff at Hut Point, and watched us eagerly as we gradually, but persistently, got nearer to the goal. The Morning was on our port side, and, quite unable to butt, was kept busy poking into the cracks which we made when we came full speed up against the solid floe. It was quite obvious that The Morning was anxious to enter the open water first and so get all the applause, but this she could not do by her own exertions. Once indeed, she tried to butt, but her performance was distinctly amusing, and some of the men aboard us were constrained to laugh. It was a cruel thing to do, but very human. So close did The Morning come to us in her eagerness that we had to cease firing for a while and proceed away to the other side a bit to get room. Hither, however, she followed us, but we went on butting - all hands, as before, “rolling ship”. The Terra Nova did some really good work, and on one especially well remembered occasion she broke a big piece off on her port side; this opened up a nice crack just ahead of the Morning, and giving where she was access to the open water beyond. She made a bold bid to enter it. and we all stood breathless for a bit, each of us believing that she would get in after all before us, but we were meanwhile going astern, and the Captain grasping the situation, instantly put the engines full speed ahead, and in a very few seconds, while The Morning was still struggling to insinuate her stem into the crack we came full speed against the piece of ice, and driving it away to port effectually closed the crack which had been so promising. The Morning was stopped dead and had to retire, while we 33

kept on ahead, chewing the ice up, then almost stuck for a little, when away we went crashing through the last few yards of ice and entered the open water at Hut Point about 10.30pm, on 14th February. As soon as we got through, the crowd on Hut Point cheered lustily and hoisted the lovely blue Union Jack presented by Sir George Nares, while all aboard our ship gave three ringing cheers for Captain Harry McKay, for the good old ship, and for The Morning. The Morning soon followed, and both ships tied up to the fast ice not many hundred yards from The Discovery. About midnight we moved nearer to The Discovery, and at 4.45pm on the 15th we passed our wire hawser aboard The Discovery, and by permission tied up to her, having forced our way as near to The Discovery as was practicable. We could now fall asleep with an easy conscience - surely nothing, we thought, could now prevent The Discovery from reaching the high seas. On the 15th two small charges of gun cotton were fired at The Discoveryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bows, but these had little effect. Next day at 1am a large charge was fired with much better results. About 10am we stood out in the bay a bit, in order to let the ice come if it were so impelled. About 11.50am a large charge of gun cotton was fired in a crack which running right across Winter Harbour, passed through by The Discoveryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stern. We could see several huge blocks of ice pitched up, and just at noon we could see that the Discovery was moving beyond all doubt. We ran up our ensign and got all hands aft, and gave three ringing cheers for the good ship. The Discovery slid right out and swinging round on one anchor cable (the other haying been taken on board previously) lay heading into the harbour which had kept her so long, instead of out of it as she was before. We were signalled to come alongside and we tied up to The Discovery, but that night about 11pm the weather was so rough that Captain McKay went off in his own ship and made for more open water. Later on that night the whole bay became choked full of very heavy pack, which, however, had all gone by morning.