Beyond the Polar Night. An Art & Science symposium

Beyond the Polar Night: An Art & Science Exploration of Extreme Marine Environments in the Arctic

*This symposium is held in english*

This last November, joining a scientific expedition, the presenters in this interdisciplinary symposium sailed into the double darkness of the Polar Night and the depths of the Fram Strait. It immediately became clear to them that they were part of a reprise, a kind of reenactment. Setting sail from Svalbard, where the last coal mine closed down a year ago, they were suddenly finding themselves caught between the wintery forces of the Arctic Ocean and the extreme marine environments at the bottom of the Strait; between predictions of an inevitable ice-free Arctic summer by 2050 and the extractive prospects of industrial deep-sea mining in precarious depths like these. Explorations of the Earth raises all too familiar questions about the balance, if any, between humans and the Earth.

This interdisciplinary symposium asks how we can explore to protect. Can art and science exchange sensibilities, methods and knowledge to defend the darkness in which life also exists? Is the scientific imagination maybe even able to envision other ways of doing research apart from feeding the public and industry with data? Is it possible to a greater part to invite the Earth into the process of studying and sensing the earthly forces and milieus, that we can no longer ignore in the unstable climatic regime we suddenly find ourselves in?

Program:

13.00 – 14.15

Welcome: Lars Kullerud, President, The University of the Arctic (UArctic)

Giuliana Panieri: Extreme Environments: Sanctuaries at the End of the World as We Know It?

Michael Kjær : A Reversed Expedition, if even possible?

John Grzinich & Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir: Audiovisual Performance – ‘Arctic Circle/Ocean Depths’

14.15-14.30 | Break, refreshments are served

14.30 – 16.00

Marta Gentilucci: On the Deep Sea, Science and Industry

Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir: Future Remains

Gry Bagøien: Live Performance – ’Arktis.k’

Plenary: Q & A

Accessibility in Elissa auditorium is good. There is a low threshold into the space. All information on accessibility in The Nordic House can be found on the webpage www.nordichouse.is