Project:
Working Title «Signal»
Category:
Art Direction
Concept Art
Year:
2026
«After a certain amount of time on the ice — usually more than six months continuously — some polar explorers begin to hear the Signal without any equipment. Not through radios. Not through headphones. Directly.
They call themselves "hearers." ConLog calls it "ice sickness" and attributes it to stress and isolation.
Medics at the bases have received instructions: evacuation, rest, psychological support.
No entries in personal files.
At the bases, it's not customary to speak about the Signal out loud.
There's a ritual. When someone stares at one point for too long, or stops mid-sentence, or wakes up at three in the morning and goes to the window — no one asks or distracts them.
On Vega, they call it "listening together."
"The polar regions are a dead zone for regular communications. GPS is unstable at high latitudes. Satellites in low orbits appear above the horizon for minutes at a time. The ionosphere plays tricks on anything that uses radio signals. Magnetic storms can cut off the base for days."
The Wolverine is a stubborn beast. It's sent forward when the maps are wrong and the satellites are silent. Inside, it's cramped, smelling of diesel fuel and someone else's sleep. Outside, it's an orange blotch on white, the only color as far as the horizon. Anyone who's driven a Wolverine even once will never get into a Fox again.»
«The "Foxes" were even smaller.
Knees on the dashboard, elbows pushing the walls apart—a slow, orange coffin on tracks. The first vehicles thrown by ConLog were easy to repair, which outweighed the inconvenience.
It seemed like a good half of the all-terrain vehicles were driven out of stubbornness.»
« The "honeycombs" were part of the initial expansion; with proper skill, they could be set up in twenty minutes, even in average weather. They were intended to provide two sleeping places, but most of the time, the second half was occupied by equipment and dirty socks. After a couple of years of such use, the "honeycombs" were nicknamed "smelly egotists." »
«Kim thoughtfully twirled his new mug. As sometimes happens at the start-up of large, well-funded companies, ConLog had commissioned someone to create a unique design for practically everything. They'd obviously spent a considerable amount of money to look convincing.
Someone from Vega said it was a small Norwegian studio—Kim wasn't 100% sure, but the color coding, clean lines, and choice of materials certainly suggested that was probably the case.
Kim chuckled and pressed the red button on the coffee machine. Posers.»
Contacts:
Phone: +44 7878 428839
Email: avduevskij@gmail.com
© Aleksei Avduevskii / ALA Visual Development