Images of

ANTARCTICA

McMurdo Art

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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This little display popped up over the summer in a glass case on the way to the galley. "Beaker" is local slang for scientists, after the Muppets Show character who was the twisted, nervous laboratory assistant creature. Most of the time, "beaker" is a relatively friendly term. So this fellow Ken Wilbert made some little scenes involving beakers...all wearing the RED PARKAS, of course! As an aside, there are two main schools of outdoor clothing: Carhartts vs. RED PARKAS. In general, people coming down here get issued two sets of ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. One is a set of brown pants, and two brown coats...these are the Carhartts and are generally the choice of the tradesmen, especially those who work outdoors a lot. The other set of clothing involves the famous RED PARKA, and this is generally the choice of the office workers, higher-ups, and scientists. Personally, I gravitated toward the RED PARKA for no real reason. I started wearing the Carhartts right after I arrived, but somehow I like the RED PARKA better. Anyhow, all these little beakers are doing various things...playing ping-pong versus some penguins, getting towed by a Spryte, etc. There is even a beaker in a beaker with a giant needle sticking out of him. Also note the beaker doing his Slim Pickens impression riding the ICBM. Funny stuff.

Another pic of the Beaker Art.
Speaking of beakers, here is the main road by the Crary Science and Engineering Center (beaker central). Some wise-ass put up a street sign, but it seems he/she got the spelling wrong. Funny anyway. There is a lot of this sort of thing at McMurdo. People here have a great sense of humor overall, and if you keep your eye open you'll continue to find little things around station that are just plain funny. Depending where they're placed and how sarcastic they are, they can either disappear overnight (the fun nazis will take them down) or they can remain up for years. For example, there was a sign on the road to Williams Field earlier in the season that said "Hitchikers May Be Escaping Inmates". Classic, but it was short lived. Presumably some higher-up thought it was inappropriate. Especially since we had a bunch of congressmen (read "sources of money") come through station this season. The Beaker Street sign has stayed up, though.
Another view of Beaker Street.
Off to the Carpenters Shop. This place is loaded with all sorts of great artwork. Here's some miscellaneous things up on a wall there.
This little piece of modern art hanging from the ceiling caught my eye.
A really nice Antarctica wood carving. Well done.
A cool polyhedron. Just another piece of woodwork hanging from the Carp shop ceiling...
A McMurdo classic: the Sawbuck's Coffee sign.
Weddell World and Penguin Ranch (partially hidden) are nicknames for summer-season field camps studying the local fauna.
Evidently, it's a carp shop tradition for the winter-overs to make a sign. A bunch of signs from years past are hanging in the shop's high ceiling area.
Some more winter-over paintings.
There is a bridge leading from Crary to Building 155 (the galley, admin, and dorm building) which is often adorned with various things. Karen Joyce started putting these little ET's on the railings, but inevitably they would disappear. Probably drunks taking them. So she decided to affix this one permanently. And as of this writing 5 months later, it's still there.
The Goat Path is a little trail which serves as a shortcut between the carp shop and the FEMC building. It's pretty handy, actually, and is good fun to go ripping down on the bike. Here is the official marker.
Someone put up this cool wind chime along the goat path. In the winter it gets covered in snow, but in summer it is dug out.
This is the "handrail" out front of the FEMC building. A few years ago a welder cut these hands out from a piece of steel plate and put it up here.
A better pic of the handrail. Very cool.
This is the sign outside of the hazardous waste building. His parka's name tag says "Haz Chimp".
Many of the dorms here have nicknames. This one is Hotel California. This, along with the nearby Mammoth Mountain Inn, comprise the McMurdo ghetto, where first-timers usually live. The longer you are here (i.e. the more "ice time" you have), the better dorm you get. I lucked out and got in dorm 201, which was better than "Hotel Cal" or "MMI". The best dorm for the workers is 209, especially the side that faces McMurdo Sound (great views). But, there are two little buildings near Hotel Cal that serve as the extra-posh dorms for the "distinguished visitors" that come through here on giant boondoggles every year.
The Iron Whale. This is one heck of a sculpture. A few years back, it occupied a place of prominence in town. But then some moron with enough clout decided he didn't like it and tried to have it dismantled. A "Save the Whale" campaign ensued and the whale was graciously allowed to remain alive...albiet in a more hidden spot. It currently lives near the fuels barn. 7/6/04: I got an email today from Roy Egeland. He made the whale with his brother Harry during the winter of 1993, and actually found my pictures from out there on the web. How cool is that? My compliments to these maestros on their excellent work.
This thing is most excellent.
My uncle Martin took my photo of the iron whale and edited it a little...the results turned out pretty nice.
Scott Base runs on 240V instead of the 120V we use. Thus, their engine block heaters have different plugs. So there are a couple 240V connections around town for the Kiwis to use when they come over. This, obviously, is one of them.
The clinic. This is a very nice building to look at - one of the very few at McMurdo I can say that about. Style counts for nothing with McMurdo architecture.
This is one of my favorite things at McMurdo. I love this mudflap - a generic USAP participant in that sexy pose, complete with gloves, boots, and parka with hood! Yeah!
This is a neat sign hanging outside the sheet metal shop, which is in the FEMC building.
There is some good stuff in the Paint Barn. Here is an incredible Bob Marley painting on one of the doors.
Another one in the paint barn of an ocean scene. Not too fancy or overdone - it's very appealing to me. Proportions and light are great.
This is a well-known painting around town. Again, it's in the paint barn.
Here's a giant pipe wrench that someone made and placed in the plumber shop.
The plumber shop's fridge. I dig the green alien.
At Scott Base, there is a little hut where the McMurdo-to-Williams Field shuttle will stop during the summer. There's a lot of graffiti on the inside that I didn't really, um, feel the need to photograph...but there is also a nice painting of Emperor penguins on the outside.
The full shuttle stop hut. Note the chains used to hold the building down....so it won't blow away.
This is the "Skua Barn" doorway. Skuas are local birds...scavengers. The term "skua" has become a verb here...meaning to re-use, recycle, scavenge, etc. In fact, there is a repository where people can drop off things that they no longer need. And this is it. There's all sorts of stuff in here, some of it actually useful. I have been meaning to skua another pair of jeans, as the ones I brought down are wearing out fast. Also, before the polar plunge I skua'd a pair of old shoes to wear while plunging. Didn't want to walk with bare, wet feet on the ice, you know.
A great sundial, located on the bridge between Crary and building 155. A local carpenter made this over the summer this year. Not only did he put the geographic directions on here, but the magnetic directions are also included. The South Magnetic Pole is actually NW of us!
Here is a cardboard loader which hangs from the ceiling in the waste barn.
I LOVE this - it's a homage to Raytheon, painted on a wall in the waste barn.
A drainage ditch runs along the main drag through town. At the point where a driveway crosses it, someone dubbed the area "Wild Kudzu Mining Company Sluice #2".
This summer, a brightly colored wooden star appeared under the bridge from Crary to 155.
This is a crate sitting outside of the carp shop, where people have slapped all sorts of labels on it.
The coolest label on the crate is this Vostok Station sign. Vostok is the Russian base out on the Polar Plateau, where the coldest temperature ever recorded was measured...-123.9 F. Those guys actually sign up for 2 year tours at that station. Many of them come through McMurdo on their way in and out...and when they come out, they are READY TO LEAVE ANTARCTICA!!! I have seen some of these poor guys and heard a lot of great stories...many of which are pretty bawdy. This year, Vostok station is closed for the winter because they didn't have enough fuel (I think that is the reason). The crew is staying at Mirny station, on the coast.
My officemate Joel over the summer had a roommate who made this thing - it is actually a volume controller for a stereo system. You turned the copper ball to adjust the level. Funky.
This thing was seen at Icestock, our annual outdoor music festival. It's a dragon made from ductwork and other spare parts.
The Sawbuck's Coffee sign again...they brought it out for Icestock and put it on the side of the fish hut that was being used as a coffee stand.
A little demonstration was set up outside of building 155 to show off a hybrid solar/wind power system used at a field camp over the summer. On the door to the power supply hut, somebody installed this neat-o painting around the doorknob.
Around Christmas, various signs went up on telephone poles. This is one of them...the Christmas Penguin!
This is another one: the Grinch.
The library sign is a nice touch.
This is my favorite painting around McMurdo. It's absolutely beautiful. I found this inside the cargo barn.
Also inside the cargo barn is this: the Twilight of VXE-6. This was the old squadron that used to do the flying here before the job was given to the NY State Air National Guard.
Another shot of the VXE-6 painting.
Ah, a nice little placque in honor of a bridge in town. Something tells me that the building of the bridge didn't go 100% smoothly....
So here we are at the McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery (MAAG). This is located at the Mechanical Equipment Center (MEC). Each year, there will be a big event here involving pieces of artwork, performance art, and a fashion show. It's all very tongue-in-cheek, and was originally started with the idea of poking fun at the real McMurdo art show. Well, it has grown and is now one of the most notable events of the summer season. There is a small area where various pieces are on permanent display. And this is it. A much better MAAG page is 60South.com, a page maintained by a former McMurdo science tech. This page and much other Antarctic art can be found here.
An electronic component man at MAAG.
More MAAG stuff.
Nice mobiles.
Still more MAAG stuff.
So the MAAG event rolled around, and I decided to go for a bit. I showed up late, right before the grand finale: the fashion show. They made a runway at the MEC, and this is it.
This is the background for the MAAG fashion runway. I had no idea what to expect from this event....
...but it had a pretty big crowd.
So it started up. Basically, it was a parade of people in various weird outfits, doing various weird things. Like this guy: a mouse man...walking on a cable spool.
Some of it was nice, actually. Like this woman for instance. She was being carried around by a bunch of guys in overalls/wigs/etc.
Yep, another picture of the babe.
Back to the weirdness: here is the end of the show. A couple guys in bizarre costumes, who were lowered down onto the stage from above, danced around....
...and then were raised back up. Woo hoo.
My sentiments on the whole thing. Eh, perhaps I was being kind of a codger, because it was pretty funny. Just not my cup of tea.
So here is an official patch from the Russian Antarctic Program. How did I get a picture of this? Well, a friend of mine was working at a bar one night when some Russians who were passing through on their way to/from Vostok started some problems. One guy took a swing at my friend....and so after things were getting more under control he swiped the guy's patch from his coat!
This guy also appeared over the summer, underneath the bridge from Crary to Bldg. 155. The TROLL!!!
Someone put a ton of work into this thing. It's a high quality piece of art. I like the bone in his mouth. That, and the nice large mace.
Awesome.
Here is building 17...with a slight modification to the official sign.
Around back from Stalag 17, there is this huge penguin. Actually, they have found fossils down here from extinct giant penguins....6 feet tall!
This is a fish hut that was dragged back to McMurdo after the end of the summer field season. Going out of business! Bargians bargains bargains!
A couple years ago, an interesting saga unfolded. This guy Art Bell, a US radio host who is completely wrapped up in conspiracies and the like, had this bizarre guest on his show. This guy was an "Antarctic expert" who had been "studying the continent for 20 years" or whatever...although he had never been here. He had gotten ahold of some various tidbits about goings-on here, and based on these factoids (some of which were actually true), he spun this wild theory about conspiracies and clandestine activities. Some guys here actually got ahold of these radio broadcasts, and they are available on a local computer to listen to. I spent one evening in my office listening to the entire set of broadcasts....and it's absolutely mind-blowing. My jaw kept dropping farther and farther as it went on. It was priceless. This guy took a few bits of info and created this spectacular story involving nuclear disasters, Atlantis, UFO's, disease outbreaks, and...mysterious viruses from Lake Vostok (which is a huge lake buried under thousands of feet of ice beneath Vostok Station...they have been drilling for years to reach this, and they are very close. They have stopped drilling so as to decide how best to finish the job, as they don't want to contaminate this ancient and pristine environment). Anyway, the whole thing was a lot of fun for the winter-overs at McMurdo that year. Here is a good one...an official sign about virus research. I found this in the Comms shop, where my friend Steve works. He was here that winter and has a lot of funny stories about the whole thing.
Another local legend, which happened the same year, was the UFO guy. A member of one science group started to have, um, issues during the season. Among other things, he was absolutely convinced that aliens were coming to McMurdo. As an aside, I have heard this guy was mentally PQ'd (physically qualified) by TWO separate head shrinkers before coming down. They both insisted he was A-OK, even though there was known evidence to suggest otherwise. This could just be another McMurdo legend, but it would not shock me. Anyway, people had a lot of fun at his expense too...wearing tinfoil antennas on their heads etc. On the appointed day, a group of people actually followed him to witness the apocalypse...which as luck would have it, failed to materialize. Oh well. Here is a great poster commemorating the whole thing. It's also hanging in the Comms shop.
In April (earth day), we had a little recycled art show at the coffee house. The idea was to make stuff from stuff you find around town. Here is Rich Degnan's beer plane.
Robert Zimmerman made this nice piece of the statue of Mary. The actual statue overlooks Hut Point and was built in memory of Richard Williams, who died here in the mid-50's. Interestingly, I was hanging out with my friend Molly at the firehouse one evening as she had the (boring) dispatch shift. A call comes in from the US, and it's this fellow Charlie Bevelacqua. He wanted to talk to the NSF rep as he was organizing a reunion for McMurdo old-timers. As it turns out, he was one of the very first guys to set foot at McMurdo in 1955 with Deep Freeze I. He was in the Navy at the time, when they started to build the McMurdo Naval Air Facility. When he arrived, all that was here was Scott's Hut! I understand that during Deep Freeze II he was also one of the first guys to set foot at the South Pole after Scott's party left in 1911. He was a good friend of Richard Williams, and was involved in the building of the statue of Mary in his honor.
This was a neat wire sculpture.
This isn't really artwork, but near the displays someone put the legend of Mike the Hamster. Outside animals are outlawed in Antarctica (thus no more sled dogs are used here), but someone managed to sneak a hamster down and they've been keeping him around for years it seems. Or are they? Does he really exist?
Here are a bunch of funny quotes about the mysterious hamster. Good stuff.
The non-smoking bar is called Gallagher's, after the late Chuck Gallagher who died at McMurdo during winter 1997. Unfortunately, the place is very sterile....almost like a rec room at an infirmary. It wasn't always like this - I am told it had much more character before it was remodeled a year or two ago. Nice work guys! During winter, it was almost always empty. Unless there was a band or party there, or unless it was "burger bar" (they have a grill in Gallagher's), you'd be lucky to find 3 or 4 people hanging out. On several occasions, bartenders would go the whole night without a single customer (aside from friends whom they pleaded to join them for company). Anyone who wanted to drink beer would go to Southern Exposure. I avoided Southern like the plague during the summer, as it was usually crowded, unfriendly, and unbelievably smoky. Aside: literally, after 10 seconds of standing inside and you walk out reeking of stale smoke. For various idiotic reasons, no ventilator has been installed in the smoking bar. There is, however, great air flow in Gallagher's. Go figure. Anyhow, Gallagher's was usually so dead during the winter that I even started going over to Southern if I wanted a beer. And although it was still very smoky, it was much more enjoyable and friendly than during the summer. Of course, now that summer is here again (I'm writing in October '03), Southern sucks again. But back to the point: this is a nice wooden piece hanging on the wall in Gallagher's.
Here's a placque for Chuck Gallager, and a little case with some mementos. He died while a medevac plane was en route to the station.
Another item adorning the walls in Gallagher's - a series of knots commemorating winter 1989. Some Navy Seabees were here then, probably working on some construction project.
Down in the AGE shop in building 159 (AGE = Aircraft Ground Equipment) there is this great mural on the garage door. Frank Thompson, the winter over AGE mechanic, told me what the significance of A5 was, but of course I forgot. But I do know the bird in the middle of the painting is a raven, and has some significance. My friends Dave, Steve, Helen, Frank, Fox, and occasionally a few others would get together Sunday afternoons during the winter in building 159 and play Half-Life over the LAN (a shoot 'em up computer game). Geeky, yes, but lots of fun.
This little painting is on one of the lockers in the heavy shop, or VMF (vehicle maintenance facility)...the BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER! Good movie.
In the weeks leading up to midwinter's day, a design contest was held. Each year, in addition to the company-provided commemorative winter-over hat and shirt, the winterovers will decide on their own design and have some other items made. The voting was held after the midwinter's dinner, with the winning logos placed on water bottles, patches, stickers, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. Here were the choices for 2003....
I submitted this one as a joke - but it actually was displayed for people to vote on. This is wintertime MacTown with a giant, uh, derriere floating above. I was told later that some people actually voted for this one, and jokingly pestered my friend Cheri King (the official judge) to demand a recount because it didn't win.
I came up with this one as a legitimate entry for the water bottle, sticker, and patch, but it came in second in each category.
A couple pics here taken during the heavy shop's July 4th carnival party. This is a product of the carpenter shop...the Raytheon corporate ladder! Folks, it's a wobbly climb. I didn't make it very far at all....guess that confirms what I was already sure of - I'm not Raytheon management material.
This mural is on a central wall in the shop. No mincing of words in the heavy shop.
Here's my friend Star Hall, who was the winterover ATS site manager. She is wearing the coolest shirt ever invented.
Here is a great painting which hangs inside Southern Exposure, the smoking bar. It's from 1973, evidently, and shows the construction of the annual ice wall. Ice wall? I had never heard of such a thing. But I learned that in the old Navy days, they used to build shelters out of ice at the beginning of winter to house various items. I'm not sure why they didn't just put up some storage huts, but I'm sure there was a good reason....even if it was just keeping the enlisted men busy. Anyhow, they did this on the sea ice transition. This painting is not well lit (and my flash doesn't work - that's the only problem with my new camera) but it's a view looking toward Hut Point, with Vince's Cross and the Discovery Hut. We still have many old dozers in service here that look a lot like this one. One of them is a 50 year old Caterpillar D8 LGP.
The (in)famous clock in the galley. When the galley was remodeled a few years back, this clock was commissioned as a piece of artwork for it. I know the clock created quite a bit of interest when it was installed. Some loved it, some hated it, some questioned the cost (it was expensive), etc. etc. But it's here to stay...and is actually quite nice. All compass points read "N"!
Another one of the galley clock - it's right above the coffee machines.
This painting is on a door of the paint barn, near the carpenter shop. Somebody scrawled a funny (but nasty) message on the bottom of the sign in early winter. It actually stayed up until Winfly when someone painted it over again.
A little bridge with a humorous sign, leading to the MEC (mechanical equipment center), which is housed in the SSC (science support center) building. The old MEC building still stands next door to the SSC, and it's one of the oldest on station (1958).