Time and zones
We are going to have eight time changes in the next month, and we will lose a day as we cross the international date line. These changes are partly because we cross into new time zones but also to accommodate ship’s crew shifts. Last night we might have fallen back and crossed a time zone because it’s now two hours earlier than I expected when I woke up. We are in the central US time zone, which is UTC -6. I have no idea how this works with shifts. I have been working 5am to 5pm. Today I work 2:45am to 2:45pm? I’m fine with that but my coworker might not be. He showed up just now and was not sure what time it was. The PI (main scientist) came by and said she had spent an inordinate amount of time trying to calculate what was happening with the time. She says tonight we will gain back an hour and be on eastern US time. Not sure if I should trust that, even though she is a scientist.
We have a mapping app that is supposed to show our track but that part is not working. The boat is the red object and we are headed toward the study area at 170w 65s. The scientists will be gathering samples along 170w and the direction is still being debated. South to north or north to south.
The grantee crew includes an artist who works for the Rhode Island School of Design. (vis-a-thon) Her work there is also funded by the National Science Foundation. The basic idea is to help scientists use art based visual imagery in new ways, to enhance their work and to engage with a wider audience about science. Arting science, so to speak. We looked at photos of a variety of contemporary art from the 1900 until now. We were to find one that spoke to us, through a lens of science experience, education or their research or specialty. Sciencing art this time. The images were of all mediums, paintings, lithographs, textiles, ceramic, metal, glass, photography.
Sitting around a conference room table with a dozen people quietly looking at dozens of images was delightful and soothing. Also a little daunting, since we would have to talk to the group about our choice. I have no research or science but decided I could try the exercise in terms of my writing and how that goes or doesn’t. My writing is relatively straightforward, generally grammatical, with thought to making coherent paragraphs and complete thoughts. I hope there is humor and character as well.
I tried to find something that I could make up a story about, not that I necessarily liked. I liked an inuit print of a bird but there wasn’t much to say about it. There was a linocut about a path. The top part was radiant and inviting and the bottom was determined. The middle was bleak and unforgiving, like many a journey. I settled on a mid-century quilt from Alabama.
It’s a utilitarian object, created with materials at hand by ordinary people and it is recognized as art. It’s geometrical and colorful and also not quite lined up. There are a few random bits of quirk being brought in at the edges of the central triangles. Who knows exactly what I said, because most times I talk to a group, I immediately forget what I said and I have little idea if I sound unhinged or profound. I think I said that the center of the quilt was the structure I tend to have in writing, and that the surrounding offbeat parts are also critical to making the whole. A little of this, a stain or a splotch, some floral next to geometry.
There was a deal of discussion on this. Someone said my grandmother would never have allowed a quilt to look like that. Look at that lower corner, it’s almost a slur, like they weren’t even trying. Another talked about the extreme precision of the Mennonite quilts of her remembrance. Another thought about growth, the center part being made for a small person, with the quilt expanding as they grew.
Those scientists must have taken art criticism classes in college. Their views were expansive and articulate and every one of them found a piece of art that related to their world of science. Diatoms are extraordinary structures, very visually engaging. Isabel the knitter was ahead of the game on this exercise.
I realized that I should have explained a bit about her Halloween costume, the Ekman spiral. It’s ocean currents that twist as the depth increases. I’m curious to see what her next visualization is.