Field_Notes - Cultivating Grounds 2011

Cultivating Grounds

FIELD_NOTES – Cultivating Grounds

Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Kilpisjärvi/ Lapland/ Finland.
26. September – 2. October 2011
Organized by the Finnish Bioart Society in the context of the Ars Bioarctica project together with the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station.

Field_Notes – Cultivating Grounds is a week long field laboratory for theory and practice on art&science work at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki in Lapland. Five working groups, each hosted by an expert (Oron Catts, Marta de Menezes, Anu Osva, Tapio Makela and Terike Haapoja) together with a team of four, will develop, test and evaluate specific artistic approaches based on the interplay of art&science. The outcome of Field_Notes will result in a publication published by the Finnish Bioart Society in 2012.

“Cultivating Ground” refers to the intention of Field_Notes to develop and strengthen art&science practice with a specific focus on the locality of Kilpisjärvi. The local nature and ecology, as well as the scientific environment and infrastructure of the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station will act as a catalyst for the field work carried out.

Field work is an activity referring to the collection of raw data. Fieldwork is something what one does locally on the field and about the field. It is a form of practice which cannot be done elsewhere. However it is not opposite of theoretical work, but a crucial component of it. One could say that the fieldwork keeps one close to the research topic. A very similar type of practice is inherent in the arts. This is specifically apparent with art forms that aim at creating awareness, mobilizing the public, and working locally with people in their environment. In these kinds of practices the artistic research, production and implementation are happening in the field, close to the topics and to the public the artist wants to reach.

Practitioners, in both art and science, repeatedly argue that their disciplines loose touch with the actual research subject or topic while the focus is directed on lab work or gallery presentation. Field_Notes aims to investigate and point out the importance of field work in art&science. The fields where Field_Notes will be carried out specifically are the subarctic nature, ecology and landscape, the lab, the workshop, the study, the infosphere and the Field_Notes working groups as such.

During one week the groups will organize themselves in working groups, think tanks and workshops. They will carry out their work in the related field environment as well as have common activities of lectures, presentations and feedback sessions. Expected results include abstracts, code, collaborations, data, documentation, future workshops, hardware, ideas, knowledge, photos, presentations, prototypes, skills, sounds, projects, videos etc. .