Explorative Imaginaries; Communicating the biocultural heritage of the forests
Current issues of global environmental change raise several social, cultural and historical concerns. The proposed communication project builds on the notion that knowledge based on the humanities and long-term perspectives is valuable for understanding and envisioning the conditions for sustainable futures. Such efforts will however require innovative cross-disciplinary integrated communication approaches and agendas. The main objective of this communication project is to build a platform, incorporating components to research communication and coproduction of knowledge, e.g. arts, local knowledge, cartography, and social media. The proposed communication project is an extension project of the ongoing research project, Contesting Marginality (VR). In this communication project we aim at the development of a communication platform. The platform – we conceptualise as Explorative Imaginaries – will contain tools for exploring cultural, historical and ecological processes that shape biocultural heritage, and to find new ways of communicating knowledge about biocultural heritage using maps, photography, audio-visual representation, film, and music. The purpose of the project is to use a plural approach to communication and to create new imaginaries based on a fusion of art and science, allowing visualisation and representation of multiple experiences of living in the forest edges of Scandinavia, and to create new imaginaries of pasts and possible futures.
Final report
Project Purpose and Development
Explorative Imaginaries was a RJ communication project linked to the VR-funded research project, "Contesting Marginality: The Boreal forest of Inland Scandinavia and the Worlds outside 1500 AD" (2017-01483; duration 2018—2022). A fundamental premise for both projects was an engagement with current issues regarding global environmental changes, which fundamentally raise various cultural and historical considerations. Nevertheless, research on these issues primarily resides within the realm of natural sciences. The communication project was founded on the idea that knowledge based on the humanities and long-term perspectives (archaeology, history, local knowledge) is valuable for understanding and envisioning the conditions for a sustainable future.
The purpose of the communication project was to develop the communication platform Explorative Imaginaries. The platform was intended to contain tools for exploring cultural, historical, and ecological processes that shape biocultural heritage, as well as finding new ways to communicate knowledge about biocultural heritage through maps, photography, audiovisual representation, film, and music. The idea was that the project would develop a communication approach based on a diversity of inputs, thereby creating new imaginative worlds about sustainability based on a fusion of art and science. This, in turn, would enable the visualization and representation of multiple experiences of living in the boreal forest areas of Scandinavia and create new imaginative worlds about the past and possible futures.
Brief Description of Implementation and Discussion of Project Goals Achieved
The project involved researchers from the research project "Contested Marginality" (primarily Karl-Johan Lindholm, Daniel Löwenborg, Anneli Ekblom, Eva Svensson, and Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir), as well as coordinator and science poet Michel Notelid, musician Maria Kvist (with musicians Isak Andersson on drums and Robert Erlandsson on double bass, with Linus Kåse as recording technician), film director Dani Kouyaté, photographer Ingrid M. Reiser, and local historian Yngve Eliasson and residents of Ängersjö, including Lars Erik and Birgitta Larsson, Marco Buttelmann, and Tomas Eliasson. The main project work consisted of several smaller projects, e.g. resulting in the short film "Pollenprovtagning vid fäboden Kårebolssätern" capturing a research activity at the field location Kårebolssätern, and a longer film "Röster från Ängersjö," which is a poetic contemplation of the forest, the village Ängersjö, and its people. The film and EP "Sånger från Ängersjö" by Maria Kvist Trio were the results of collaborative fieldwork in the village of Ängersjö. During the fieldwork, researchers and artists lived together for four days, exploring the landscape around Ängersjö for inspiration in creating music, film, and scientific poetry based on the research's main findings. A concluding longer film was an interview with pioneers in Ängersjö research, Ann Kristin Ekman, Ella Johansson, and Gert Magnusson. They were members of the large interdisciplinary project "Flexibilitet som tradition. Ett mångvetenskapligt forskningsprojekt om södra Norrlands inland under 1000 år” (finansierat av Riksbankens jubileumsfond), more commonly known as the "Ängersjö Project."
The results achieved by the communication project were in line with the project's ambition to create a diversity of voices and expressions through various media. The cartographic aspects were not fully realized, largely due to the impact of the pandemic on the project's final work.
Experiences and Lessons Learned
The communication project differed from the pure research project in many ways. Initially, there were many discussions to formulate a common vision of what the project would lead to. As the project gained momentum, group discussions became easier, and the gains from these conversations were seen as significant, especially at a time when conveying research to a broader audience is challenging. Through the project, researchers developed their skills in conveying knowledge in ways that can also be presented through means other than scientific reports. The artists who participated acquired different perspectives on the realities they were trying to capture. An example of this is that shortly after this project, Maria Kvist used the same method to portray the landscape around her own village with the album "Jämtlandssångerna," which was recognized as the Folk Jazz Album of the Year by LIRA and nominated for the Jazzkatten award.
Webpages and Any Publications, as well as Links to Publications Published in Open Access Format
Maria Kvist Sånger från Ängersjö:
iTunes: https://music.apple.com/se/album/s%C3%A5nger-fr%C3%A5n-%C3%A4ngersj%C3%B6-ep/1489951218;
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1hUaKkDfLC1sAvsl9UqTNO
YouTubekanalen Explorative Imaginaries
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMe5uj7I1k6xmchko0s35Mg
Pollenprovtagning vid Kårebolssätern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14AJHiFA4Ew&t
with results in the publication
The history of settlement and agrarian land use in a boreal forest in Värmland, Sweden, new evidence from pollen analysis. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-021-00829-y
Röster från Ängersjö https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NEqQwdmP-s
Samtal med Ängersjöforskare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9_gTZhnWng
Samtal med Ängersjöforskare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9_gTZhnWng
Explorative Imaginaries was a RJ communication project linked to the VR-funded research project, "Contesting Marginality: The Boreal forest of Inland Scandinavia and the Worlds outside 1500 AD" (2017-01483; duration 2018—2022). A fundamental premise for both projects was an engagement with current issues regarding global environmental changes, which fundamentally raise various cultural and historical considerations. Nevertheless, research on these issues primarily resides within the realm of natural sciences. The communication project was founded on the idea that knowledge based on the humanities and long-term perspectives (archaeology, history, local knowledge) is valuable for understanding and envisioning the conditions for a sustainable future.
The purpose of the communication project was to develop the communication platform Explorative Imaginaries. The platform was intended to contain tools for exploring cultural, historical, and ecological processes that shape biocultural heritage, as well as finding new ways to communicate knowledge about biocultural heritage through maps, photography, audiovisual representation, film, and music. The idea was that the project would develop a communication approach based on a diversity of inputs, thereby creating new imaginative worlds about sustainability based on a fusion of art and science. This, in turn, would enable the visualization and representation of multiple experiences of living in the boreal forest areas of Scandinavia and create new imaginative worlds about the past and possible futures.
Brief Description of Implementation and Discussion of Project Goals Achieved
The project involved researchers from the research project "Contested Marginality" (primarily Karl-Johan Lindholm, Daniel Löwenborg, Anneli Ekblom, Eva Svensson, and Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir), as well as coordinator and science poet Michel Notelid, musician Maria Kvist (with musicians Isak Andersson on drums and Robert Erlandsson on double bass, with Linus Kåse as recording technician), film director Dani Kouyaté, photographer Ingrid M. Reiser, and local historian Yngve Eliasson and residents of Ängersjö, including Lars Erik and Birgitta Larsson, Marco Buttelmann, and Tomas Eliasson. The main project work consisted of several smaller projects, e.g. resulting in the short film "Pollenprovtagning vid fäboden Kårebolssätern" capturing a research activity at the field location Kårebolssätern, and a longer film "Röster från Ängersjö," which is a poetic contemplation of the forest, the village Ängersjö, and its people. The film and EP "Sånger från Ängersjö" by Maria Kvist Trio were the results of collaborative fieldwork in the village of Ängersjö. During the fieldwork, researchers and artists lived together for four days, exploring the landscape around Ängersjö for inspiration in creating music, film, and scientific poetry based on the research's main findings. A concluding longer film was an interview with pioneers in Ängersjö research, Ann Kristin Ekman, Ella Johansson, and Gert Magnusson. They were members of the large interdisciplinary project "Flexibilitet som tradition. Ett mångvetenskapligt forskningsprojekt om södra Norrlands inland under 1000 år” (finansierat av Riksbankens jubileumsfond), more commonly known as the "Ängersjö Project."
The results achieved by the communication project were in line with the project's ambition to create a diversity of voices and expressions through various media. The cartographic aspects were not fully realized, largely due to the impact of the pandemic on the project's final work.
Experiences and Lessons Learned
The communication project differed from the pure research project in many ways. Initially, there were many discussions to formulate a common vision of what the project would lead to. As the project gained momentum, group discussions became easier, and the gains from these conversations were seen as significant, especially at a time when conveying research to a broader audience is challenging. Through the project, researchers developed their skills in conveying knowledge in ways that can also be presented through means other than scientific reports. The artists who participated acquired different perspectives on the realities they were trying to capture. An example of this is that shortly after this project, Maria Kvist used the same method to portray the landscape around her own village with the album "Jämtlandssångerna," which was recognized as the Folk Jazz Album of the Year by LIRA and nominated for the Jazzkatten award.
Webpages and Any Publications, as well as Links to Publications Published in Open Access Format
Maria Kvist Sånger från Ängersjö:
iTunes: https://music.apple.com/se/album/s%C3%A5nger-fr%C3%A5n-%C3%A4ngersj%C3%B6-ep/1489951218;
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1hUaKkDfLC1sAvsl9UqTNO
YouTubekanalen Explorative Imaginaries
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMe5uj7I1k6xmchko0s35Mg
Pollenprovtagning vid Kårebolssätern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14AJHiFA4Ew&t
with results in the publication
The history of settlement and agrarian land use in a boreal forest in Värmland, Sweden, new evidence from pollen analysis. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-021-00829-y
Röster från Ängersjö https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NEqQwdmP-s
Samtal med Ängersjöforskare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9_gTZhnWng
Samtal med Ängersjöforskare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9_gTZhnWng