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- Convenors:
-
Petr Gibas
(Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Karolína Pauknerová (Charles University)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Posthumanism
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 23 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
Anthropocene has made us more aware of the limitations of anthropocentric prism. Landscape can offer us one tool to re-work our anthropocentric pre-conceptions. This panel calls for contributions exploring changing landscapes that allows us to question the status quo.
Long Abstract:
Landscape represents a widely used, often ambiguous and at times contested concept employed across a number of disciplines. It is a dynamic and multi-layered concept with different scholars emphasising its various facets due to its descriptive as well as theoretical salience. Anthropocene has made us more aware of the limitations of anthropocentric prism in social sciences and humanities. Landscape can offer us one tool to re-work our anthropocentric pre-conceptions by connecting us to the very material, more-than-human milieu we (co-)inhabit, (co-)create and research.
What makes landscape distinctive both conceptually and empirically is its certain plasticity. In disciplines preoccupied with the human we see the growing emphasis on an explicit empirical as well as conceptual engagement with non-/more-than-human. Although the plasticity of the conceptualisation(s) of landscape can be seen as a weak spot with other concepts having been pushed to the fore instead (e.g. space and spacing, assemblage), in our panel, we propose to stay with "landscape" and use its plasticity for an exploration of the changing world in which we find ourselves.
This panel calls for contributions exploring changing landscapes including liminal, peripheral, post-military, post-industrial and other that allows us to question the status quo and explore its changes. We want to encourage discussion on topics including:
- (accelerating) changes to past and present landscapes
- growing emphasis on an explicit engagement with non-/more-than-human
- modes of scholarly exploration (empirical research, conceptual and theoretical engagement, methodological concerns)
We aim at drawing together empirical, methodological, theoretical and experimental contributions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 23 June, 2021, -Erika De Vivo (Università degli Studi di Torino)
Paper short abstract:
By examining the Márkomeannu Sami festival and the materials collected during ethnographic fieldwork on the Norwegian side of Sápmi, my contribution addresses the constant, evolving engagement the Márkasámi community has with the local landscape and the non-human beings embedded in such a landscape.
Paper long abstract:
The Márka, (Norwegian side of Sapmi), is a borderland area long regarded as peripheral and liminal both in Norwegian and in Sami milieus. Nevertheless, the Márka and its specific landscape are central in the identity of the local Márkasámi people. The relationships the Márkasámi have with the Márka are deeply rooted in Sami non-Christian worldviews and are bestowed with multiple layers of meaning. My contribution examines the relationships between Márkasámi and the Márka area by addressing them through the Márkomeannu festival.
Festivals like Markomeannu epitomize and influence contemporary Sami cultures. Consequently, environmental concerns, often discussed in Sami circles, emerge as both topics of discussion and elements of performative arts during Sami festivals. Merging fiction and reality, the 2018 Markomeannu edition was set 100 years in the future, in a time when the “World is about to collapse in power struggle, nuclear war, colonization and environmental crises”. Only Gallogieddi stands as a landscape of freedom for the indigenous Sami peoples. This concept introduced festivalgoers to a dystopic scenario denouncing contemporary environmental malpractices while, simultaneously, reaffirming Márkasámi connections with their land. Márkomeannu has always had strong political overtones and the depiction of a potential ecological crisis not only is in line with this political engagement but also offers locals as well as festivalgoers an opportunity to come closer to the Gallogieddi landscape and its culturally meaningful features.
Based on 16-months ethnographic fieldwork and on interviews with Sámi cultural activists, this contribution provides a glimpse into the complex relationship between different local actors (humans, non-humans) and the Márka landscape.
Slobodan Dan Paich (Artship Foundation)
Paper short abstract:
Post-Anthropocentric landscape in and beyond current models of disciplinary boundaries reflection on number of pioneering initiatives in last fifty years that sensed emergent paradigms within community setting helping possible models of inclusive methodologies beyond and with humans.
Paper long abstract:
This paper's contextual areas and perimeters of interest are:
1. Spatial Theoretical sing-posts and emerging paradigm -
2. Reclaiming, redefining Public Space examples -
3. Enactment as cultural expression, cognitive enrichment and research methodologies
The Paper opens with selected comparative cultural findings on Genus Loci concept and similar notions in indigenous and ancient cultures.
Reflections on and issues of Landscape as Container being metaphorical, conceptual or actual are approached through seven examples of mostly hard landscape, urban realized projects:
Art into Landscape: - London 1974
Urban Intervention - Liverpool1969
Building small Lake - Fano (1975-1980)
Community Poles Project / Street as Gallery - Oakland, (1986-1991)
Reclaiming Public Space /Citizen's Initiative - Oakland, (19961999)
Reuse on Urban Scale - Oakland, (1999-2004)
Migration Landscape - Istanbul 2013
Based on the examples of initiatives responding to community needs and issues raised the last section of the paper introduces the cognitive and neuro science findings and interpretations about space perception, assimilation and responses as contributing to understanding Landscape Experience as cultural phenomenon.
Rhetoric or Action - Brief conclusion summarizes the diverse notions, touched upon in the paper, of human relationship to landscape and possible plural future inclusive and caring paradigms of research, presentations and curriculum developments towards the Post-Anthropocentric paradigms.
Petr Gibas (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences) Karolína Pauknerová (Charles University)
Paper short abstract:
In our contribution we explore the accelerating changes to a post-mining/post-military landscape in northern Bohemia with an emphasis on more-than-human materialities of everyday. Through this prism, we conceive the landscape as one of re-creation.
Paper long abstract:
In our contribution we explore the accelerating changes to a post-mining & post-military landscape in northern Bohemia with an emphasis on non-/more-than-human actors and forces. At present, spatial restrictions cover spaces of the removal of uranium mining residues, individual, closed mines, and protected natural areas. The region itself is a borderland region with low population and many recreational facilities. Hence, the contrasts in the landscape abound – the depopulated zones scattered with ruins lie near ancient castles and towns in and around which refurbished houses and establishments embody the ongoing struggles to re-invent the region. It is absences, the traces of what has been, which fuel many projects (architectural, artistic, conservation) of re-inventing the region and re-creating the landscape. These often attempt at re-branding the area as unified and meaningful by filling absences with new materialities and meanings. In order to understand the dynamics of the changes, we explore the more-than-human materialities of everyday in order to understand the landscape as one of re-creation.