80+1 Kilpisjarvi — Climate Change (Finland): Part of 80+1-project by Ars Electronica :: Conference: July 15-18, 2009 :: Call for Participation.

80 + 1 Kilpisjarvi will host a four day conference (July 15-18) open for participation via the global window in Linz and via stream online. During the four days researchers will present a variety of issues about climate change in the arctic and globally. The themes vary from animal adaptability to societies’ preparedness to a changing environment. The audience has the opportunity to pose questions and discuss climate change with experts. The afternoon offers a video-screening program of artistic approaches related to the topic of climate change. The works are screened on the Global Window in Linz (Hauptplatz). Artists included are for example, Ilkka Halso / Museum of Nature, Tarja Trygg / Solargraphy, Agnes Denes / Tree Mountain, Marjukka Korhonen, Heini Aho, and Leena Valkepaa.

The 80+1 Kilpisjarvi program interweaves artistic and scientific initiatives. The “Midnight Sun” is a live stream of the arctic midnight sun from Kilpisjarvi that will shine elsewhere in the world via the internet and onto the Ars Electronica building facade in Linz during the city’s dark summer nights. Following sundown on seven consecutive nights (July 15 - 21), the midnight sun will be reflected on the Museum of the Future’s shell.

The Finnish BioArt Society is a participant in 80+1 A Journey Around the World, a virtual tour in the spirit of Jules Verne organized by the renowned media centre Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria. The venture poses 20 crucial questions about our collective future visiting 20 emblematic locations in different parts of the globe. Kilpisjarvi is an exemplary location for questions on climate change as the issue is central to the exceptional long-term studies and research carried out by the Kilpisjarvi Biological Station of Helsinki University (Faculty of Biosciences).

Water flea circus - a peepshow on ecology is on the second day of the program (July 16) and is a performative event that puts the focus on water-fleas, research, and its significance to our environment. Researcher Iris Zellmer from Germany has spent years investigating the impact of climate change on water fleas in this sub-arctic region. Performance director Merja Talvela has linked with Zellmer to look at water flees with a view to engaging with the research through an artistic perspective. The scrutiny that water fleas undergo when under the microscope is turned on humans by posing questions about our human misconceptions and delusions when we examine nature.

This 4-days of program will be streamed online via www.kilpiscope.net and broadcast to 80+1-stage, Global Window in Linz.

The work of developing this event has generated another long-term initiative about climate change and climate issues directed for wide audiences. Climatescope is a Web 2.0 project that calls upon all internet denizens to take an active approach to the subject of climate change. For instance, you can post “Citizen Stories”-personal accounts, experiences, photos and videos having to do with climate change. “Citizen Science” goes into field research and assembles data yielded by the project’s own measurements or observations on the basis of recreated natural examples. And in “Citizen Sensor,” real-time data from throughout the world are collected, exchanged and disseminated. (Concept received an honorary mention in the Prix Ars Electronica / Next Idea 2009).

LOCATION: Kilpisjarvi is about 69 degrees north and 20 degrees east and located in a sub-arctic area of northern Finland, 50 km from the Arctic Sea, 1200 kilometers from the capital, Helsinki. The village provides had about 90 permanent inhabitants, and is a location for the Helsinki University’s Biological Station.

CREDITS: The Finnish Bio Art Society with Laura Beloff, Erich Berger, Prof. Antero Jarvinen, Anu Osva
SUPPORTED BY: Ars Electronica Center, The Finnish Bio Art Society and The Kilpisjarvi Biological Station, Helsinki University.