Members of the Deception Island Hot Tub Club on their way to the swimming area in Pendulum Cove, Antarctica. From the exhibition "Appropriating Antarctica: Photographs by Dawn-Starr Crowther." INSIDE: COA NEWS Middle East 2 Reducing Poverty 4 SPRING 1994 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC BAR HARBOR, MAINE Ten Days on a Reef 5 Re-framing Antarctica: White Lies, Eco- COA On the Move tourism and the White Continent 6 by Dawn-Starr Crowther Watsons December 30, 1991 ble in these moonscapes are those damn red coats, and 8-9 Today I became aware of my fellow passengers, clad in the mountains of abandoned how urgently I feel the need ship-issued scarlet parkas. junk left behind by previous New Trustees to photograph these land- There is a kind of despera- human activities. 10 scapes. While ashore, I slog tion bubbling along inside me But there is something Artists-in-Residence here and there, lugging two as I photograph. At first, I more insidious at work here, I 11 35 mm cameras, a medium thought it had to do with the fear. I am too much the prod- format camera, several lenses, fact that every time I set up to uct of a late 20th-century art Museum News miscellaneous photographic 13 make a picture, some tourist school education and its paraphernalia and a ten in a bright red parka bum- accompanying theoretical In Memoriam pound tripod, more than thir- bled into the frame just as I baggage, not to recognize 14-15 ty pounds total. I am pho- snapped the shutter. After something in my own photo- tographing in color because several days of frustration, I Personnel Notes graphic activity akin to that of the landscapes are SO mono- 18-19 realized that instead of trying colonial photography from chromatic and any spot of to make pictures of the vast the late 19th century. News Notes color glows like a beacon. untouched continent I had We now know, all too well, 20 Except for their beaks and assumed Antarctica to be, I how photographs have in the feet, which range from bril- COA Bookshelf needed to be true to my expe- past-and still do-function as 21 liant life-preserver orange to rience of the place. That a means of appropriating and salmon pink, even the pen- included tourists like myself, claiming a landscape or Up and Coming guins are black and white. In wandering through the land- indigenous people (and to my 24 fact, the brightest items visi- scape, visible for miles in continued on page 11 COA News A Note from the Editor The Newsletter of College of the Atlantic Since the college was founded and the shores of Antarctica Balkans, tribal warfare in Kenya Spring 1994 25 years ago, COA News has with Dawn-Starr Crowther, vis- or Somalia, or the colonial grown from a four-page iting artist at COA this spring. destruction of native civilizations. newsletter to a 24-page publi- And you'll read about some of But Human Ecology is also PRESIDENT cation. The newsletter has the educational trips made by Rabin and Arafat shaking Steven K. Katona served the greater COA com- college classes this winter. hands, and millions of people CHAIRMAN OF THE munity well, covering the col- yearning and working for peace, BOARD OF TRUSTEES lege and its ever-growing In his inauguration speech equality and freedom of opportu- Edward McC. Blair bounty of activities and this past October, Steve nity. accomplishments. Katona, the fourth president DEAN OF INSTITUTIONAL While the newsletter will of College of the Atlantic, As we go to press, the college ADVANCEMENT continue to provide the news spoke in a compelling manner mourns the passing of John C. Karen Cadbury from the shores of Frenchman about the mission of the col- Dreier, a life trustee of Col- EDITOR: Carl Little Bay, with this issue we will lege, its past, present and lege of the Atlantic. Through make some preliminary moves future, and of its hopes and his distinguished career and WRITERS: Karen Siegwald, toward expanding its hori- dreams and challenges. the classes he taught at the Elizabeth Bachner-Forrest, zons. Thus, feature articles In talking about Human college, Dreier instilled many Marti Garza, Sharon Reiser, include essays on the Middle Ecology, the foundation of a student and colleague with a Carl Little East peace process and reduc- studies at College of the sense of the world beyond Special thanks to Karen Cadbury. ing worldwide poverty. These Atlantic, President Katona Mount Desert Island. Yet he pieces were written by two of provided the audience with also acted locally, serving, for COA News is published three the college's distinguished some very powerful answers to example, as tree warden in times a year. It is circulated to trustees, award-winning jour- the oft-asked question, "What Southwest Harbor where he alumni, students, parents, nalists Philip Geyelin and is Human Ecology?" One of worked to save the ailing elms. and friends of Leonard Silk, who have spent his answers seems especially We dedicate this issue to College of the Atlantic. lifetimes covering their respec- relevant to this issue of the John C. Dreier (1907-1994), PRINTER tive subjects. college's newsletter: benefactor, educator, diplo- Downeast Printing In this issue, you'll also mat and great friend of Col- and Graphics have an opportunity to visit a Today, if anyone asks you lege of the Atlantic. reef off of Key Largo with what Human Ecology is, you can DESIGNER Chris Peterson, who teaches tell them that it is Kuwaiti oil Carl Little, Editor Z Studio marine ecology at the college, fields ablaze, ethnic hatred in the COA's logo: So What, Who Cares: Some Thoughts What does it mean? on Peace in the Middle East by Philip Geyelin On November 3, 1993, Philip nary developments of the last "Who cares?" Or, perhaps, Geyelin, trustee of College of the several months. Yet that is the "Why am I taking this ride?" Atlantic and a Pulitzer prize- topic of discussion that has These are not silly ques- winning journalist, led a discus- been proposed to me-and as tions. It is easier to say "so sion at the college on current somebody who is writing a what" now, with the fizzling Mary K. Eliot designed the events in the Middle East. book about the region and out of the Cold War, when COA logo in 1971 using pre- Geyelin, who is writing a biogra- has wandered out there quite there is no longer the danger Christian symbols found in the phy of King Hussein of Jordan, a bit, the subject strikes me as of a shoot-out in the Middle Book of Signs. was invited to speak by Donald a good one. East triggering a nuclear con- Meiklejohn, faculty member in It does, however, take me frontation between the Sovi- th back to my journalistic child- ets and the United States as public policy at the college. What follows is an excerpt of hood with the Wall Street Jour- there was most notably in Geyelin's remarks, which, despite nal, where the editors had a 1956 and 1973. Nobody can is the symbol for tree stern rule that is as valid for the passage of time, remain perti- talk seriously any longer nent to the ongoing peace process what I am trying to do right about Israel as a "strategic M in the Middle East. now as it was for the writing ally." If Desert Storm proved of those long, expository nothing else, it demonstrated for humans and Bass Harbor, Maine, from pieces on the Journal's page that we look after our own where I am sitting right now one. Somewhere very high in interests-and, for that matter, ss putting these words into a any story-no later than the Israel's, even if those Patriot computer, has an obstructed third paragraph-the writer missiles may have done more for the ocean. view of Blue Hill Bay. It is not must give the reader some harm than good in shielding The three signs are intertwined what you might call the opti- reason for wanting to proceed Israel from Iraqi Scuds. It is in a circle symbolizing the mum vantage point from any further. It was known as easier to say "who cares" earth and the universe. which to assess the chances the "So what?" paragraph, when those Persian Gulf oil for peace in the Middle East although it could just as well resources are no longer a printed on recycled paper in the light of the extraordi- have addressed the question, continued on page 3 COA NEWS 2 SPRING 1994