KUNO töötuba “Arctic Art and Climate”

KUNO network online course ARcTic, Art and Climate
Estonian Academy of Arts
Umeå Academy of Fine Arts

Participants: Ahmed Tamboly, Hannah Wiker Wikström, Theresia Pürmayr, Ariadna Rodriquez, Brooke Maria Eriksen, Liga Berzina, Greta Gillham Wright, Madde Andersson, Milda Muktupavela, Laura Gaiger, Malin Nordström, Malin Bengtsson, Olga Melekhina, Angela Elizabeth Ramirez Fellowes, Eva-Marie Elg, Erica Giacomazzi, Emma Hjelm, Lena Krüger, Charlotte Ostritsch, Per Nenzelius, Catja Tonberg

Lisainfo

In this Kuno course, ARcTic, Art and Climate, we are posing the question, what can artists do to get involved in this most urgent discussion of our time? How can we engage in a global discourse that becomes more and more omnipresent? How can we disseminate information through artistic means, and how can artistic research interact with scientific research?

The aim of this online course was to expand our perception of these pressing issues by working across practices like Land Art, Activist Art, Environmental Art, Propaganda etc in a trans-media approach. The collaborative project focuses on the experience and perception of climate change by artists as an active relationship that transforms physical conditions and phenomenological situations into political or poetic artistic action.

The Climate Impact Research Centre in Abisko has conducted research about the possible impacts of climate change for more than twenty years, and its coordinator and researcher, evolutionary biologist, and ecologist Keith Larson is a co-teacher on this course. Mr. Larson has extensive experience in collaborations with artists, notably with Bigert&Bergström, and Olav Westphalen. Laura Kuusk is a prominent Estonian multi-media artist, and artistic researcher. She is an associate professor at the Estonian Academy of Fine Arts.

The course consisted of a series of online lectures and seminars about art and the arctic in times of climate change, to inspire students to find a way of researching and producing their own practice within this most urgent topic. Students were invited to actively join the seminars, do short presentations about their work or a related topic, and be engaged in group discussions.

This online course has been created in lieu of Arctic, Art and Climate course in Abisko, which had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus health crisis. It is a follow-up of the last two years’ collaboration between the Master’s programme at Umeå Academy of Fine Arts and the Climate Impact Research Centre in Abisko. The aim of the course is to catalyse, continue, and deepen the critical dialogue of art students with climate change.

Schedule:
Monday, May 11, 15h–17h
Introduction by Christoph Draeger
Keynote speech and lecture by Keith Larson
Followed by Q&A and discussion

Tuesday, May 12, 15–17h

Artist presentation and lecture by Laura Kuusk
Followed by Q&A and discussion
Wednesday, May 13, 15–17h
Artist presentation and lecture by Christoph Draeger
Followed by Q&A and discussion

Thursday, May 14, 15–17h

Artist presentations by participants (t.b.a)
Followed by Q&A and discussion

Friday, May 15, 15–17h

Artist presentations by participants (t.b.a)
Followed by Q&A and discussion
Conclusion by Laura Kuusk and Christoph Draeger