You know once in a blue moon you will meet someone that will cause your lungs to expand deeply and new breath appears from within. I got that breath of fresh air when I met Cedric Victor-DeSouza. What makes him so extraordinary? One might think his artistic talents alone having a permanent installation at Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, or his former bass playing with Swans' Jarboe....but no, what makes Mr. Victor-DeSouza stand out is a journey. A journey not yet taken but is being prepared for. That journey is to the South Pole! Yes, he is venturing to the desolate South Pole - that's Antarctica for those geographically challenged - as of December 2006. I chatted with Cedric on many subjects and am honored to have met such an interesting individual with a goal that life is that to be taken and is indeed an adventure.

Anti-Mag: so what you working on?
Cedric: i just finished 3 more drawings today... also working on a press release and was chatting with someone at an Amnesty International group
Anti-Mag: Nice...are you involved with Amnesty?
Cedric: yes and no.... i'm always involved in the letter-writing which I've been doing since around 1992. That's the main aspect, or rather the most consistent kind of involvement I have had with AI. Other than that I worked in their Atlanta offices for a while, helping out in different ways, and sometimes graphic design... just being there as I was needed or getting out of the way when it would be better to do so...
Anti-Mag: I used to be in high school...we wrote lots of letters I remember...
Cedric: Yes I sometimes have to stop for a few weeks... It gets to be a little difficult to have your soul get punched in the gut as you come across these facts with the letters...
Anti-Mag: I know...I always had a hard time with that but it was the reason I got involved and I sometimes wonder why I'm not as involved in such things.
Cedric: Well, i think we tend to work with what's immediately in front of us, so it has to be an effort to keep AI in the foreground as other things like bills happen...
Anti-Mag: So let's get a little background from you...is graphic design your main career?
Cedric: Well i was trained as a graphic designer and a fine artist... I've been involved with both as much as I could help it...
Anti-Mag: So you mention Atlanta...is this your hometown?
Cedric: Atlanta is where i lived from 1990-1994... a large chunk of time...I did a lot of growing up in Atlanta, I'd say:)

Anti-Mag: So tell me about this expedition to the South Pole...I mean, what on earth provoked this?
Cedric: well... I had come across Shackleton's name from reading up on ideas about leadership etc... and in 2002 at an airport i picked up a book called Shackleton's Way, which was an account of his expedition that left him and his crew of men stranded on Antarctic ice for ( I believe ) 2 Antarctic winters. The interesting thing to note was the way the continent was described... It was an altogether spiritual thing... a person would talk about the ice, the temperature, the seals and the penguins... and then I'd notice an undercurrent of something else... these people were transformed by the awe of being in an environment where there were no people, where they had to fight against nature to survive... yet here they were in sheer respect for the things that nature showed them...Things like 20-mile wide glaciers drifting and moaning
Anti-Mag: LOL...yeah it's not like you see that EVER
Cedric: or boiling a chunk of ice to make your tea, and you hear the popping sounds of bubbles that have been trapped in ice for 25,000 years
Anti-Mag: wow, that does sound amazing...do you feel we have lost touch with nature...like conceptually people will eventually will be geared towards technology rather than humanity?
Cedric: It worries me that as a species we don't think too much about the long-term. We only see what's right in front of us, i think that's dangerous. It leads to technology, which is always a good idea... but the application is not as good as it could be, or not as well thought out. pile that kind of activity over just one generation and you have a serious problem that will affect the next generation and hopefully the one after that will have time and resources to do some clean-up...as for humanity, as a quality i don't think it's very valued...
Anti-Mag: I agree
Cedric: It's not taken as seriously as a clever response to something. I often find myself being tempted, by watching peers, to do something "clever" rather than "sincere"... i think clever is overrated, a cheap thrill...Also, I think people don't feel that it's really worth it to pursue a more "human" course in life, it's easy to see that it's not very profitable on a financial level, let alone on a social level ( unless a celebrity discusses it for the length of a TV show )
Anti-Mag: too true
Anti-Mag: I feel people in recent times with society changing as it has, well they've become so desensitized and so integrated into the "system" that they've lost touch in some way....and yes, clever is great but it's rare to see sincerity....
Cedric: I think we're past desensitized...I think re-sensitized... re-wired to respond to things that have little nutrition to them
Anti-Mag: so when are you going on this adventure and what have you done to prepare for this?
Cedric: The adventure :) I'm scheduled to land on Antarctic soil/ice in December 2006. It's best to do it then because it's the summer there... although temperatures are colder than here right now...
Anti-Mag: I'm having a hard enough time with the temperature right now...what's the average there at the time you will be going
Cedric: To prepare means to train... Irun and weight train. The important thing for me is to build endurance, since this is an "unsupported" expedition, which means that there will be no food or fuel drops and we have to lug everything along in sleds and pull, pull, pull !
Anti-Mag: whoa...that's intense...so how long will it take you to get there and how long will you be exploring?
Cedric: other than that, I'm staying focused, dividing my time between work, drawing and promoting the project to potential sponsors etc. We expect to walk the 112 miles, i.e. from the point at which Shackleton turned back , to the South Pole in around 20 days. on the way there, we'll be traversing a variety of iced regions...
Anti-Mag: Is that how you are funding the expedition?
Cedric: funding is a combination of personal money, Memento Drawings and sponsors.
Anti-Mag: who will be joining you?
Cedric: Fiona Thornewill is our guide and organizer... she is a pioneer spirit having been the only woman to walk both poles and also to complete one of the journeys in record time. Lorraine Kelly is a TV presenter who's worked for the BBC... Mike Thornewill is Fiona's husband, also a polar explorer... together they were the first couple to complete a N.P expedition together other than that, there are Dick Durance, Wincent Kordula, Danusia Derben and Veronica Shaw
Anti-Mag: have you known these people or are they random?
Cedric: I've not yet met them, they are all people that Mike and Fiona have hand-picked as teammates for this expedition, as is the case with me...
Anti-Mag: that should also be interesting...on a social and psychological level! To see people in extreme situations...that is interesting to me.
Cedric: other than Mike and Fiona, everyone is essentially inexperienced where polar travel is concerned, but that is the point of it... it is an exercise in teamwork, perseverance, endurance and of course, after the expedition there's the children at schools to whom I plan to share all this through slides and lecturing and video
Anti-Mag: so what is your ultimate goal in this experience besides physically being able to endure this environment?
Cedric: the ultimate goal is to finish, which sounds straightforward and simple but isn't when one takes into account the fact that in 2002, it was really nothing more than a wish. I'd love to tell people from the other side of effort, having gotten there, that it's possible. The central message through the whole endeavor for all of us is really that "it can be done", whatever it is, however far-fetched the idea is...
Anti-Mag: anything is possible my friend...what's your biggest fear about the trip?
Cedric: well there are a few. one is getting lost, another is falling into a crevasse and another is frostbite... which is a big fear, I'd hate to come back without pieces of myself
Anti-Mag: yeah that would kinda SUCK
Cedric: absolutely!
Anti-Mag: you're going to have such a fresh vantage point on life after this
Cedric: indeed... but other than that, I'm confident that especially given our guide(s) we should be fine. I don't expect anything but I can see my life being completely different after this journey
Anti-Mag: I think it's inevitable...so what are some key things you are taking with you?
Cedric: music. i'll be bringing my iPod.
Anti-Mag: LOL
Cedric: I'll need it too :-)
Anti-Mag: ...and what will you be playing for the animals on the continent?
Cedric: I don't expect we'll see many animals in the course of the expedition, they are usually in the coastal areas supposedly. We'll be starting in the interior... where it's cold enough that you can't even catch a cold-no cold virus. Other than music , the food will be rationed out and we'll carry all our food as well as medical equipment, tracking equipment and little computers and cell phones to communicate by satellite
Anti-Mag: what are you listening to right now?
Cedric: i've been listening to Three Tales by Steve Reich today, it's been on auto repeat. also while I'm drawing i like to listen to the podcast of Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. Not too different from touring the U.S in a van :-)
Anti-Mag: yeah minus glaciers, Arctic cold, etc. Have you been to all seven continents?
Cedric: no i have yet to set foot on the South American continent and Africa proper. I'll be in S.America and Antarctica through the course of the expedition... oh and australia, i've not been yet
Anti-Mag: do you think you will be one to go on many expeditions? a modern explorer if you will? do you plan on leaving anything in the south pole?
Cedric: it is apparently becoming more available as an option to do both poles than it was say, 10 years ago. the N.Pole expedition is a different animal altogether, because unlike Antarctica which is a continent unto itself, with the Arctic circle there are logistics and territories that one has to be mindful about. Also I'd need to carry a gun, because there are polar bears there....
Anti-Mag: oof that would be scary
Cedric: I do plan on leaving something at the South Pole. i don't know what it will be exactly but it will be VERY VERY light because I'd have to take it there, by foot, in -50º weather :) Other than that i will carry sponsors' flags with me, to photograph there, at the silver dome that marks the spot for the South Pole. One of the ideas i have had is to send postcards, i.e. from Antarctica, to some of the people who have bought Memento Drawings.... the selection would depend on the mileage we cover for the day
Anti-Mag: do you like Eddie Izzard?
Cedric: Eddie Izzard ? sure, why do you ask ? He can be funny
Anti-Mag: the flags
Cedric: what does he say ? Tell me and i'll probably think about it when i'm plopping a flag down and saluting it
Anti-Mag: what he says about flags and how people stole countries using flags (We stole countries with the cunning use of flags. Just sail around the world and stick a flag in. "I claim India for Britain!" And they're going "You can't claim us, we live here! Five hundred million of us!" "Do you have a flag? ... No flag, no country!")
Anti-Mag: just made me laugh
Cedric: that would be like a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Anti-Mag: yes indeed!
Cedric: I'll be glad to think of Eddie Izzard, or shout out "this one's for Izzard"
Anti-Mag: hahahaha! too funny...you must take a photo!
Cedric: there'll be plenty of those, weather permitting
Anti-Mag: If this magazine becomes the dream i want it to, you will have to promise me that you provide an excerpt from a tour diary...unless you aren't doing one of those
Cedric: i plan to send up entries to a blog somewhere, I'd be happy to contribute to the mag also...
Anti-Mag: well I'm glad you took the time for me
Cedric: well i'm always glad to talk to a fellow-artist and entrepreneur
Anti-Mag: LOL in the making
Cedric: it's a mindset... you're an entrepreneur. if you were in the making you'd be THINKING about starting a magazine, or worse, talking about doing something but not starting it!
Anti-Mag: you are right dammit! I don't think people take the time to commend but more time criticizing and exposing stupidity rather than people's genius. I admire what you are doing
Anti-Mag: Ok, Quirky Question Time!
Cedric: ok...
Anti-Mag: ok yours is: Your the bartender...name ten people sitting at your bar (dead or alive)
Cedric: Henry Rollins ( because he doesn't drink ); Nick Cave because he does; Blixa Bargeld because he's a profound person and a great conversationalist; Akira Kurosawa; Sofia Coppola; Wislawa Szymborska, the poet; Yukio Mishima of course...
Anti-Mag: of course
Cedric: we need more women, hmmm hang on... Diamanda Galas... because she's got a great point of view...
Anti-Mag: she's amazing
Cedric: Amy Goodman; and Batman
Anti-Mag: YES! Wow, you are officially my hero!
Cedric: Oh...Tom Waits
Anti-Mag: OH NOWWWWWWWW, now you are my hero
Cedric: he'd crash the party and everyone'd laugh lol
Anti-Mag: LOL, I just read a bio on him
Cedric: on Waits ?
Anti-Mag: yep
Cedric: he's hard to pin down I'd think
Anti-Mag: true dirty music
Cedric: YES, one of the rare few and also if there was a seat left, Lee Sklar... do you know who he is ?
Anti-Mag: who is he?
Cedric: he is a bass player
Anti-Mag: ah, see I don't know these things

To get more information on Cedric's journey you can visit him here: www.unfinishedjourney.com

You can also find him on MySpace

Show your support by buying one of his Momento Drawings!

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