The book and the exhibition showcases both the students and teaching scholars art-based investigations on forest landscapes in the Nordic region, and in Scotland.
The LiLa methods school is organized in collaboration with the University of Lapland (organizer), Umeå University, Nord University of Norway (Nesna campus), University of the West of Scotland and University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI Shetland). This year the school also had visiting lecturers from University of Alaska Anchorage and Yukon School of Visual Arts, Canada. The PhD and MA students and scholars for the school 2023 came from the fields of Creative Media Practice, Art Education, Art and Culture, Teacher Education, Ecology, Applied Visual Arts, Art and Social Practice, Architecture. The development of the school series, pedagogy, digital implementation and production of results is funded by the University of the Arctic and Nordplus Horisontal.
The school built on sustainable investigation on Arctic and Near Arctic sociocultural dimensions and human and non-human agencies related to forests. In the school participants observed together a deepening appreciation of the complex and fascinating balance between nature and nurture. Forests are no simple emergence but rather are a layered space of natural and social tension and harmony, located in place.
Forests investigations at Högklinten, Höga Kusten, Sweden. Photos: Mari Parpala, 2023.
This publication consists of participants' artist statements and visual essays where some of the processes are introduced in depth. These essays have elements from the fieldwork week locations and each writers’ own places. The artworks, artist statements and the visual essays show how the art-based approaches made the participants consider their dwelling, identity and working in relation to the themes, forests and nurture. The works reflect how our living can be made more sustainable and consistent for the other beings dwelling in these same landscapes.
The Exhibition Nurture at the Ljusgården, Umeå University. Photos: Sara Rylander, 2023.
The book Nurture: Living in the Landscape, Edited by Elina Härkönen, Lotta Lundstedt, Kathtryn Burnett, Mette Gårdvik and Roxane Permar is available here: https://lauda.ulapland.fi/handle/10024/65700
More information:
- Elina Härkönen, UoL (elina.harkonen (at) ulapland.fi)
- Lotta Lundstedt, UmU (lotta.lundstedt(at)umu.se)
- Kathryn Burnett, UWS (kathryn.burnett (at) uws.ac.uk)
- Mette Gårdvik, Nord (mette.gardvik (at) nord.no)
- Roxane Permar, UHI Shetland (roxane.permar (at) uhi.ac.uk)