Constructions of North landscape / imagery / society

Thursday January 23 the fourth conference on northern landscapes in connection with the Arctic Frontiers took place. After a welcoming introduction by Janike Kampevold Larsen the following speakers, and moderator Andrew Morrison, contributed to a highly inspirational and interesting day:

William L. Fox - Backwards Landscape the Reading

Johan Schimanski - Constructing imagery, narratives of the Arctic

Stepa Mitaki - Inspiring citizens to change Murmansk through participatory planning

Kathleen John-Alder - The House We Live In: Ian McHarg’s Adaptable Concept of Habitat

Aileen A. Espiritu - Shifting rhetoric – From Barents to Arctic

Stine Barlindhaug - Constructing cultural landscapes through participatory mapping

Silje Figenschou Thoresen - The Indigenuity Project, Improvised design in Sápmi

Arvid Viken - Construction of knowledge: Tourism, research, and governmental institutions building Svalbard as image and place

Larissa Riabova and Vladimir Didyk - Arctic Single-Industry Towns in Russia: social problems, ways to solve them and the role of resource corporations

Finnmark field work

Kautokeino church / the ice building / snowmobile trip with Johan Anders Somby / bidos & lavvúliving / guides Elinor Strifeldt & Odd Mathis Hætta at the 0-point / Alta river & dam / below: the travellers

Follow the studio and the students' work here!

Constructions of North

Landscapes come down to us thick with the sediments of culture. In other words: Landscapes and territories are cultural products. Our conception of them is formed by image building, values, rhetorics, and politics. All of these have contributed strongly to conceptions of the Arctic through time, from ancient myths of Thule, through myths of exploration, to present days arguments for exploitation and preservation. This seminar invites local and international researchers and experts to explore the agency of imagery in a changing Arctic.


As large areas in the Arctic and Sub Arctic are being turned over into extraction territories, energy spaces and landscapes for tourism activities, stories and mythologies about the north continue to build. The new industries that are gaining foothold in Arctic territories are working within a certain framework of conceptualized understanding of the north as a new commodified landscape. On the other hand, social research brings forth knowledge from local practices as well as the human scale and social aspects of a region in rapid change. Mapping techniques contribute at the same time to render a more diverse and valid image of traditional landscapes, allowing for an extended and novel understanding of them.

This 2014 side-event to the Arctic Frontiers conference, arranged by the Tromsø Academy of Landscape and Territorial Studies, discusses the construction of landscapes, social conditions and imagery in the Arctic. Different construction strategies will be discussed by a wide range of scholars:
Janike Kampevold Larsen, William L. Fox, Johan Schimanski, Stepa Mitaki, Kathleen John-Alder, Aileen A. Espiritu, Stine Barlindhaug, Silje Figenschou Thoresen, Arvid Viken, Larissa Riabova, Vladimir Didyk and Andrew Morrison.


Program as pdf.


For info on the main conference and to register please see www.arcticfrontiers.com/

enter Biedjovággi

Monday the students at the Tromsø Academy for Landscape and Territorial Studies (TACL) will start the winter master studio, Focal Point Biedjovággi, with a trip to Alta, Kautokeino and Biedjovággi. Follow, and comment, our work at: focalpointb.blogspot.com.


Pics from the trip continuously published at instagram: @70N_arkitektur