Ambience Antarctica

Ice contains no future, just the past, sealed away. As if they’re alive, everything in the world is sealed up inside, clear and distinct. Ice can preserve all kinds of things that way – cleanly, clearly. That’s the essence of ice, the role it plays.

–Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

I was greeted with this quote upon visiting Ambience Antarctica, a delightful portal to the planet’s frostiest and most remote continent.

This website bills itself as a “chill spot to listen to music and look at visuals pertaining to the wonderful continent of Antarctica!”

Pun intended, of course.

Most people never get to venture to Antarctica, so this project mixes ambient sounds, scientific information, gorgeous imagery, critters, and gaming elements to virtually transport the viewer to the South Pole.

At its core, the website is a graphical carousel focused on Antarctica while relaxing music plays in the background.

Images and videos include peeks at penguins, the aurora Australis, weather data and forecasts, time-lapses at research stations, and an unending icescape.

Videos of frolicking seals segue into snapshots of the continent’s climate info; footage of sailing the Drake Passage gives way to dockets of all the aircraft over Antarctica. During the summer, live web cams display the white world in real time. In winter, of course, the Sun doesn’t grace Antarctica with light, so the cams go into hibernation. As a Northern Hemispherean, it’s another good reminder that the timing of seasons is flipped south of the equator!

The site’s simplicity and focus allow it to serve several functions.

It can be a study or work caddy, providing sounds to block out distractions. Need a break? Dip into humpback videos.

It can be a curiosity quencher. Learn about Antarctica’s geography, weather, and the creatures that live there. Occasionally, trivia questions pop up. For example:

Question: Notothenioid fishes possess a special adaptation that allows them to survive in ice-cold waters where most fish would instantly freeze. What is this adaptation?

It can be a palette for pondering the deeper aspects of existence. Mulling over Murakami’s nature of ice, while contemplating the hardiness of the life that survives in a polar death zone, all the strife of reality, yet it’s so beautiful!

It can be a hoary meditation coach. Listen to ethereal music and zen out to stunning imagery; transport your mind to a place as accessible (to most people) as the Moon. Lower your heart rate as you watch a seal relax on the Antarctic shore.

The site has another feature that might endear itself to 21st-century browsers: an adventure. Every so often, it prompts the viewer to pick a flight to a specific spot on the continent. Several modules later, the plane arrives at the new destination, but you’re informed you had an experience in addition to the ride.

You saw wildlife!

The website includes a game in which the user attempts to spot 27 Antarctic species.

The animals are grouped into different rarities based on their population sizes across the continent. The 650,000 southern elephant seals, for example, are uncommon, while 500,000,000 tons of Antarctic krill fall into the common bucket. In the time it took to pen this article, I managed to nab 12 of the 27 critters. I have yet to spy an epic – 20,000 Antarctic cormorants, 25,000 orcas, or 20,000 south polar skuas live there – or the legendary Amsterdam albatross, of which, apparently, only 96 members fly to the continent.

(As an aside, the Amsterdam albatross isn’t a hemisphere away from its home in Europe. The name comes from Amsterdam Island, which lies in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.)

Antarctic krill

Antarctic tern

Chinstrap penguin

Antarctic fur seal

We’re suckers for resources that combine learning with the beauty of nature, but throw in a game to go along with it, and we’re beyond sold.

Take a visit to this wonderfully designed ode to Antarctica by clicking the link in the Further Reading and Exploration section below.

You’ll enrich your eyes.

And your brain.

For instance – I wouldn’t dare leave a trivia question dangling – notothenioid fishes contain “antifreeze proteins in their blood and other bodily fluids. This antifreeze isn’t the same as what we put in cars – it manages to be effective at 1/300th of the concentration!”