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- Convenors:
-
Ullrich Kockel
(University of the Highlands and Islands)
Liam Campbell (Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh)
- Stream:
- Workshops, films and posters
- Location:
- A116
Short Abstract:
With our workshop we seek to encourage creative interaction between artists, writers and performers interested in exploring the potential of a fluid perspective suggested by a 'waterscapes' approach to heritages.
Long Abstract:
Drawing on a range of disciplines, artistic and professional practices, the workshop will explore innovative approaches to heritage. Adopting a "waterscape" perspective offers a conceptual basis for viewing diverse, composite heritages in terms of flow rather than a fixed point, acknowledging change and emphasising the need to work with it, whereas "landscape" perspectives focus more on stability, seeing conservation as being about the product and keeping it "as it is". A "waterscape" perspective focuses on managing change in a sustainable manner. Rivers, for example, shape landscapes but these look different, and their boundaries vary, according to which perspective is applied: a catchment forms an eco-region with a specific hydrological cycle that recursively shapes it, and in turn influences other components of landscape, from vegetation to buildings and transport.
In highlighting the hydrological cycle of evaporation and rain, a "waterscape" perspective draws attention to the co-existence in the same place of not only past, presence and future, but also the endogenous and the exogenous: Much of the rain that falls in a catchment will come from elsewhere, and even the water rising from its springs may not be all "from here". Thus "Waterscape" serves as a metaphor helping an understanding of social and economic processes; it also can reflect the psychological, emotional self-perception of individuals and their position in society: Is an archipelago bits of land surrounded by water that cuts them off from one another and from the mainland, or water dotted with bits of land it connects?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Ullrich Kockel (University of the Highlands and Islands)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on a broad range of disciplines, artistic and professional practices, the observatory aims to develop innovative ways of understanding and managing heritage by socio-ecologically sustainable means viewing heritage in terms of flow.
Paper long abstract:
Taking the idea of waterscapes (rivers, lakes, seas and so on) as a conceptual basis, and diverse heritages (natural/cultural, tangible/intangible) as thematic threads to explore, the workshop weaves together different disciplinary and artistic approaches to understanding heritage and managing it sustainably. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach to learning from tradition, heritage and environment for the future of a sustainable society.
This involves interrelated research projects and public engagement activities, leading to recommendations for education developed in conjunction with Learning for Sustainability Scotland. In metaphorically and conceptually adopting a water-based rather than a land-based perspective, the aim is to look at the physical and cultural composition of places in terms of the fluidity and indeed volatility of cultural and natural heritages, seen as both a challenge and a resource, and to explore new and creative ways of engaging with issues of sustainability in local community contexts.
Katriina Siivonen (University of Turku)
Paper short abstract:
In the current globalized world ecological sustainability demands cultural changes everywhere. These changes can be in balance or in tension with the identification to different localities. Can we in these conditions find ecologically sustainable future of archipelago culture in Southwest Finland?
Paper long abstract:
Culture and identities are in constant motion. Moreover, a very prevalent element in identification to the Southwest Finland archipelago is the will of the archipelago people to define cultural changes themselves within the shores of the islands. Nature and the sea are the only acceptable and strong definers of human actions and identities. The core of cultural sustainability is, according to this, the equal possibility of people to participate in the definition of changes in their own culture.
Culture contains always both traits which can be seen to be in balance with nature and traits which can be seen to be in tension with it. It is a question of a balance between economic activities, technological possibilities, and the amount of people in a certain ecological environment with local and global contacts. Overuse of ecological resources is always possible, even people think they live in balance with the nature, like in the archipelago. Especially in the current world with glocal human interaction, ecological sustainability demands some specific cultural changes even in the archipelago. These changes can be in balance or in tension with the identities of archipelago people. Can we in these conditions find ecologically sustainable future with archipelago culture?