WYSSA ~ All my love darling!
WYSSA ~ All my love darling! is a work that combines vocal texts derived from the ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition)
Telecommunications Code Books and combined with Bio_logging data collected from Southern Elephant Seals diving under the Ice shelves and on long Southern Ocean Transits.
The ANARES WYSSA teletype morse code words formed a compressed lexicon that allowed Antarctic expeditioners to communicate with their next of kin across the Southern Ocean. Before satellite communications where introduced Circa1985 expeditioners could send telegraphs home. To stretch out the word limit a special ANARE telegraphic code was devised.
These telegraphs were called whizzers, from the code WYSSA (All my love Darling). Today one can still send a whizzer, but it is done by faxing or emailing the communications section at Kingston who then email the message. Each expeditioner was allotted 175 code words per month but could purchase additional words at 5 cents each! These were shared with family back home, therefore the stock phrases reflect both sides of the communication, some Antarctic, others domestic.
In WYSSA the vocal material is convolved with the SES Bio-Logging data sets to produce two streams of stereo audio. The first stream is the original audio file, a voice reading the Nato Alphabet Code, for example WYLLA = “Whiskey, Yankee, Lima, Lima, Alpha” followed immediately by a second voice = “Keep Smiling”. The second stereo source is the same audio file harmonically restructured by the SES data, rendered as an abstract harmonic shadow of the vocal text.
The sound system is housed in four expedition tents (kindly on loan form the Australian Antarctic Division) which are illuminated at night, forming a camp in Kelly’s Garden, part of the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart, Tasmania.
Here are some examples of ANARE codes.
WYLLA Keep smiling
WYLME My thoughts are with you
WYLOP Good show keep it up
WYLPO God bless you and keep you safe
WYMAM My thoughts and prayers are ever with you
WYMEM Love and best wishes for new year
WYMIP Are you all right worried about you
WYMMA Please don’t worry
WYNAN Glad to hear you are better
WYNNA Hope you will soon be better
WYNPE Very happy in receipt good news
WYNRO I wish we were together on this special occasion all my best wishes for a speedy re-union
WYNUS With kind regards from
WYOHL Your loving family
WYSSA All my (our) love darling (this is there the name comes from).
YATOP The weather has been very bad for the past
YATPO The weather has been so bad that
YATRY Wind velocity (ies) has/have reached
YAUCY Weather too bad for
YAUDZ In bad weather
YAURN Snow is drifting through the station
YAUSP Deep snow drifts have accumulated in the lee of huts
YIUMS Am saving money and doing ok financially
YIURY I am having a struggle financially
YIVBO How are the children
YIVIZ Give my love to the children
YIVOB We have just had a radio blackout lasting several days
YIVUC Days are short in the antarctic at present, the sun appearing above the horizon for no more than three hours
Over and out!
