Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how maritime landscape can be used as a resource when designing sensory tourism establishments – more specifically an outdoor water world. Through artistic and phenomenological design, the concept ‘magic of place’ is ethnographically applied to a coastal area in order to transform and transport nature’s characteristics into play activities and edutainment.

Paper long abstract:

Concepts such as imagination, creativity and nature-based, ecological innovation often lack in the Scandinavian small and medium sized tourism- and leisure industry. Paradoxically enough, this industry is also supposed to be magic which - by definition - is meant to differ from notions of 'everyday life' and 'ordinary reasoning'.

Nevertheless, the predictable has crept up in the magic industry and the result is its' standardised mass-products: Nature and landscape is more often considered a scene for tourism behaviour but seldom viewed upon as a resource that can be closely incorporated into the experience of sensing the natural forces.

This particular case of a water world development project located in southern Norway was never put into production. Phenomenological sensory of the natural landscape met a rather traditional, safe or un-experimental leisure industry and the collision of meaning, regarding aesthetic sensing and experiencing obstructed the project.

Still, I will debate the values and manifestations of 'new' coastal experiences: How can one apply 'maritime nature' in the field of a water world industry? This paper thus discusses the natural resources found at a particular place and the research strategy-approach when materialising and incorporating the sensory aspects of coastal geography into water leisure experiences. I will give examples of how ethnographic methods and analytical concepts such as magic of place, phenomenological experiments, storytelling and edutainment can transform coastal materiality into a corresponding water world establishment's sense-scape - designed from and located in nature.

Paper short abstract:

The paper addresses migrant theatre productions and discusses theatres as places where intangible heritage is negotiated and transmitted in multiple ways. The paper explores the role identification with theatres as places plays in these processes.

Paper long abstract:

Non-professional migrant theatre productions are often viewed using the insights of interculturalism, cultural exchange or integration and are usually not included in discussions on intangible heritage. However, in their productions migrants not only recreate traditions and knowledge of their home countries but they also actively engage with Swiss Society. Just the fact that these performances are taking place on public stages will change their performance. Stages to rent as well as private theatres and the city theatre therefore turn to places where identities and traditions are negotiated and where (imagined) places are constituted.

When looking at theatrical productions of young people with migrant backgrounds, usually organized and directed by theatre pedagogues, arts education is a further aspect to be looked at: As schools are devoting less and less time to attending and making theatrical performances, there is a growing fear that the ability to watch and understand theatre as an aesthetic genre will be lost. Theatre itself is becoming an endangered tradition. Theatre projects addressing young migrants therefore always include visits to theatre in addition to the own acting experiences.

Drawing on my fieldwork in Basel, Switzerland my paper focuses on how theatres - especially the city theatre - serve as places to perform cultural identities or heritage and to negotiate issues like migration. Also, I discuss how these theatres become part of the actors' identities help to keep theatre and drama as a genre and cultural heritage alive, as non-professional players experience theatre by watching and acting.

Paper short abstract:

Personal and spatial naming conventions confirm the distinctive cultural aspects of a proposed World Heritage Site. When expressing land claims, the Anishinaabemowin speakers in the region distinguish between place and space revealing a pattern of overlapping claims and complementary purposes.

Paper long abstract:

This fall the leaders of five Anishinaabeg communities in northern Canada will submit a bid to establish one of the largest and most comprehensive UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world, a cultural landscape which incorporates their communities and over 400,000 hectares of boreal forest. This paper illustrates how personal and spatial naming conventions will be used to confirm the distinctive cultural aspects of this cultural landscape. Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Anishinaabeg, is spoken by more than 90 per cent of the people in the region, and it reflects their perceptions of the natural and dream world. The ways in which places are represented, animals and plants discussed and hunting and other practices expressed illustrates their unique cultural link with the boreal forest. When expressing the various kinds of land claims, Anishinaabemowin, speakers distinguish between place and space and a pattern of overlapping claims and complementary purposes is revealed. Personal naming conventions also reflect acute Anishinaabeg perceptions of the natural world; the woman's name, Minwewejiwang, for example, means 'a nice sounding flow of water.' The paper will explain the grammatical structure of the language emphasizing the relationship between the land and the language and will also look at naming conventions, both the conceptual systems behind the names of places and the way that references to the landscape are incorporated in the names of individuals. We will draw from myths and historical stories to illustrate how the Anishinaabeg language is used today to express profound and unique connections with the Pimachiowin Aki region.

Paper short abstract:

I carry out releasing a book of collected stories of oral history, poems and articles concerning an old pilot village, Lypyrtti. I also write my dissertation work about the same subject on the topic of Narrated environment. In my paper I’ll reflect what I understand by sensitive listening.

Paper long abstract:

To sense is to be part of the environment. I've collected oral history in Lypyrtti, an old pilot village in the south-western coast of Finland, at the villagers' own request. During the interviews I found how sensitive listening led me to understand the ways different local people interact within their environment. The emotional narration included mainly the concern or fear of losing the local knowledge, especially the memories of preceding local people, their knowhow and relationship with nature. At the same time people were sad for the lost clear waters. Water is the centre, the fairway and the all around essence of the village. Emotions could be interpreted as signals or clues, through which also the environment reminds of its' demands.

While I do the interviews, plan and carry out releasing the book of collected stories, poems and articles dealing with the village, I do my dissertation work. My role as a scientist is an anthropology at home. My own experiences in the village, living there in summer, listening its voices and silences has helped me understand that the sense-scape has its history, too.

The history of a village is a collection of narratives picked from the stream of events in the ever-changing landscape. What methodological tools could I use to express the still indescribable experiences such as intuition or sense of place? Could that help me find the connecting thought, the main thread through the whole story? If there is such a thing.

Paper short abstract:

In my paper my aim is to focus on the relationship between a person and her/his landscape. I am interested especially on the narratives of those who are living in Diasporas outside their home territory. On what senses and methods is she/he constructing the narratives of landscape?

Paper long abstract:

People who earn their living from natural resources are not always able to explain their knowledge concerning their use of the environment in words, because it is based on other senses as smells, tastes, touch and, also on intuition. It is an important part of their tacit knowledge, which is essential e.g. in reindeer herding. In this paper I am not, however, focusing on the relationship between reindeer herders and their landscape, but on the relationship of those outside reindeer herding. They can belong to the younger generation of reindeer herders and might have left the area or the profession, and are returning to the same landscape, sometimes using the landscape in other purposes, sometimes only during their holidays.

A landscape or a site is experienced in different ways depending on whether it is looked at by a local or visitor. As a consequence, places have become multivocal and this multivocality often involves multilocality. According to Margaret C. Rodman (2002: 214-215), polysemic places bespeak people's practices, their history, their conflicts and their accomplishments. Narratives of places are not mediated with words only; in addition to speech and hearing they can be told and heard with other senses as well. Such narratives deploy, e.g. an image of a rock that was situated near the place, smells, like the smell of spring in Lapland, brawling of home rapids or murmur of trees in the wind. My aim is to focus on these narratives and their sense of landscape.

Paper short abstract:

The presentation will delay with the roots of the sensitiveness of the Lithuanian nation to the surrounding nature, especially, with the close relations between man and trees. Forest as the main factor of the Lithuanian landscape remained in the memory of the nation until the end of the XIX century when the movement of the national rebirth started. The power and the beauty of the wild nature are well reflected in the Lithuanian art, music and literature. Wooden carvings of the saints raised in the trees can be met often even in present days Lithuania. From the ancient times forest protected, nourished and dressed our ancestors. Furthermore, it was believed that goods also lived in the forests.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation will delay with the roots of the sensitiveness of the Lithuanian nation to the surrounding nature, especially, with the close relations between man and trees. Lithuanian farms often looks like a little forest. It is very functional of course. Trees growing around the farm protected it from the strong wind in winter. But maybe we can presuppose that the Lithuanians feels very god himself in the surrounding of the uncultivated trees. Forest as the main factor of the Lithuanian landscape remained in the memory of the nation until the end of the XIX century when the movement of the national rebirth started. The power and the beauty of the wild nature are well reflected in the Lithuanian art, music and literature.

Wooden carvings of the saints raised in the trees can be met often even in present days Lithuania. Exclusive trees by their thickness, age, form of corona, growing in crossroads, near ancient burial places often could be decorated in such specific way. This phenomenon reflects a very characteristic trait of Lithuanian traditional culture - close relationship with nature. From the ancient times forest protected, nourished and dressed our ancestors. Furthermore, it was believed that goods also lived in the forests. At the beginning of the 20th century, people still believed that the spirits of the dead lived in the trees. The places of the previous sacred forests remain in the communal memory of the people until nowadays.

Paper short abstract:

Based on the research project Lojas da Baixa & Chiado: património vivo e imaterial (Downtown & Chiado: live and inmaterial patrimony), taken by the Gabinete de Estudos Olisiponenses – CML (Lisbon Studies Bureau - Lisbon City Hall), we try to recover and rebuilt the “colective memory” (Halbwachs) of 21st Century ardinas – newspaper street vendors – throughout oral history, with all its (des)continuities.

Paper long abstract:

The present reflection is noting more that a small part of the research project Lojas da Baixa & Chiado: património vivo e imaterial (Downtown & Chiado: live and inmaterial patrimony), taken by the Gabinete de Estudos Olisiponenses - CML (Lisbon Studies Bureau - Lisbon City Hall). This project takes form in the shops that are part of Baixa (literally Downtown) and Chiado areas, as for the "voice", it is represented by the shops' owners, managers and craftsmen, as for the "life" it is expressed by the "colour" captured by photographer Luís Pavão lens. But, among over half-hundred different business activities and more then one thousand shops that make up this commercial mosaic, where stories are gathered, built and interpreted, in order to understand the working class memories that help us to understand how complex and plural is the concept of identity, we have chosen the 21st Century ardinas, i.e., newspaper street vendors. In the forefront of a "struggle" for a "place", we mean a physical and a social place in the city, that sometimes is translated in a certain blend between people and places. "Viewers" of a multicultural flow of people that show Lisbon's new (and growing) maritime centrality.

Being aware that from this memory recover may result emotions, hence is "purifying" attitude; nevertheless there are obvious family solidarity dynamics. Therefore, oral history may be an auxiliary to History as a science. But the "memory-boom" phenomenon has an other explanation, memory is becoming a patrimony for places, representing an asset.