Extremes Symposium

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

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

Background:

The Extreme project aims to develop and disseminate a transformative interdisciplinary approach to studying Extreme Environments in the Arctic regions and beyond.

Extreme Environments are places where conditions are very harsh and challenging for life. These areas can be incredibly hot, cold, deep underwater, or have high levels of chemicals that most living organisms would find toxic. Examples of Extreme Environments are cold seeps and hydrothermal vents, areas on the ocean floor where fluids and gases seep out of the Earth. Not only are such extreme marine environments sources of interest to current oil and gas industries, but they are also places of potential exposure to future practices of deep-sea mining.

The project is granted by UArctic (UA 06/2024, from 01-01-2025 to 31-12-2026) and it is a collaboration between UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Department of Geosciences),  the University of Copenhagen (Department of Arts and Cultural Studies), and the University of Iceland Research Centre in Þingeyjarsveit.

Presenter info:

Giuliana Panieri (IT), Director of the Institute of Polar Science, National Research Council of Italy, and Professor of Geology, The Arctic University of Norway

Michael Kjær (DK), Assistant professor in Art History, University of Copenhagen, PASS – The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Practice-based Art Studies

John Grzinich (EE/US), Audio-Visual artist and cultural coordinator (https://maaheli.ee/main/)

Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir (IS), Visual- and performance artist

Marta Gentilucci (IT), anthropologist, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen

Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir (IS), Visual artist (https://thorgerdurolafsdottir.info/bio)

Gry Bagøien (DK/NO), Singer, sound- and performance artist (https://grybagoien.bandcamp.com/)

Accessibility information about Elissa Auditorium and the Nordic House is here.