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University of Applied Arts Vienna�Prof. Monika Halkort

Estonian Academy of Arts�Prof. Kärt Ojavee

Bauhaus University Weimar�Prof. Ursula Damm, Prof. Kerstin Ergenzinger, Mindaugas Gapševičius Felix Bonowski

University of Applied Sciences�Prof. Myriel Milicevic Potsdam

Re-enchanting the Field

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ONLINE SESSION 2: April 11th

Guest Lecture: Social & Political History of Oil Shale Production

Linda Kaljundi, Prof of cultural history, EKA, Tallinn

imperial links, Nazi&Soviet period & industrialisation of landscapes, population transfer, economic significance and extractivist land-body relations, risk, accidents, trauma (i.e. the 1988 fire in Estonia mine), social and cultural legacy & significance (identities, status, belonging, solidarities, attachment to place),

Conceptual Briefing: Elemental Ethnography

Monika Halkort, Ass. Prof Transformation Studies, University of Applied Arts, Vienna

Key Concepts: techno-natures, feral objects, geo-social formations, queer ecologies, waste, resource, residue

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ONLINE SESSION: April 25

Guest Lecture: The geo-history of oil shale in Estonia.

Riho Mötlep, Institute for Geology and Earth Science, University of Tartu

What is oil shale?
Topography of extraction
Environmental impact:

Methodological Briefing: acoustic ecology, chromatography, listening exercises

Mindaugas Gapševičius & Felix Bonowski, Bauhaus University Weimar

Instructions for Group Work (3- 5 people)

Homework: Concept Note. What relational dynamics / transformations do you want to explore?

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Concept Note

summarize your research interest/planned experiment

5+ sentences background info,

10+ sentences main object/focus of fieldwork, research question, anticipated outcomes

5+ technical description: tools, method, process

5+ references

Deadline: April 30^th

Online Session 3: May 9th

Preparation for Travel (coordinating schedules, Accommodation, technical instructions)

Q&A

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Scientific practice and artifacts

Miga + Felix / Bauhaus Weimar

The composition and properties of ash in the context of the

modernisation of oil shale industry (Mai Uibu et al, 2021) doi.org/10.3176/oil.2021.2.04

Poster Session, Steven Rose, CC-BY_SA 4.0

Wiki:Superchilum CC-BY_SA 3.0

Atomic Emission Spectroscopy

Piotr Panek CC-BY_SA 3.0

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Experimental Techniques / Bauhaus Weimar

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find a safe spot

Find a position to stay/sit/be still

Close eyes

Count to 36

Stop counting

Listen

Identify all sounds around you

Consider all dimensions

360° {perception}

below/above

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Score/instructions by AGF aka poemproducer aka Antye Greie

open your eyes

pick one of these questions and answer them:

what is the quietest sound?

what is the loudest?

which sound is closest, which furthest away

what is your favourite sound of all of them ?

is there rhythm?

is there a sound that scares you?

is there a sound which you can´t tell what it is ?

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Listening-lensing & notating-mapping exercise

This Listening-sensing exercise(s) aim(s) to help to connect with your non-visual sensorium to the different sites you will visit.

You should repeat it at every location you visit and investigate for some time.

The goal is that you are able to both better relate to the places + grasp and start to understand them in relation / in comparison to each other.

Try to repeat the exercises at each site and if possible at more than one area of the different sites that you will encounter.

One conceptual interest or focus to direct your attention to on-site are borders or liminal zones, where one area transits to another. For example such a zone could be characterized by the fact that an area where (almost) no vegetation is growing, slowly or abruptly changes into a zone with vegetation. Or in one place you suddenly notice lots of insects or other signs and signals of living creatures.Or the type or quality of debris or vegetation differs significantly…
Try to spend min. 15 minutes at each particular location . Set a timer.

Always start with eyes closed for a minimum of 5 min. Set a timer.

If possible (time & site conditions) repeat the listening exercise btw. change the your body´s position and shift your listening perspectives during the sound inventory phase: upright standing, sitting, lying horizontally on your back…

Take notes and map the experience according to the following detailed description → will be sent to everybody together with the other exercises . Depending on the available time on-site, start with some first notations and continue from your memory later.

Please: always make a drawing /sketch from each place - location, observing the surroundings with your eyes and your embodied attention after the listening-sensing-exercise.

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Introduction to Feral Atlas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvEHQp7ry58&t=3262s

https://feralatlas.supdigital.org

Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene.

By Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena & Feifei Zhou

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Thiago da Costa Oliveira

Made by the indigenous Yahuna group: in 1905, the anthropologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg brought the basket from Colombia to the Ethnological Museum. It was also woven from the fibers of the Jupati palm.

Image source: SPK; Ethnological Museum Berlin, Lisa Kröning

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Andrew Yang, Flying Flying Gardens of Maybe, 2012 - present

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UnRiver, Tilmann Finner, Marielouis Hippler, Kerstin Humm

https://mississippi.erictapen.name

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Whale falls – Carbon sinks

Carbon Aesthetics Group:

Alexandra Toland, Clemens Winkler, Desiree Foerster, Karolina Sobecka, Myriel Milićević

Focusing on whales—and the way whales are considered as an environmental archive and “no-tech” carbon storage by marine biologists and sustainability economists alike—the group reflects on the natural-cultural history of these creatures whose non-human bodies allow for thinking across different aesthetic and epistemic registers.

Link

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When in Narva, we will create a living map as a kind of physical version of the website, relating different experiments, observations, performances, images, recordings, data, texts, materials, elemental studies, dialogues etc.

John Grzinich, Geofractions (2009- )

Geological stratum as Induction surface and Ida-Virumaa territorial map

https://maaheli.ee/main/geofractions

Lia Perjovschi. 2020. Key Words. Exhibition "What Makes Another World Possible?" Photo: Paul Kuimet�https://arterritory.com/en/visual_arts/topical_qa/25822-we_live_in_a_time_of_historical_amnesia/

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TOOLS AND READINGS

Using Wiki / Research Diary

https://www.uni-weimar.de/kunst-und-gestaltung/wiki/GMU:Re-enchanting_the_field

�Questions?

Contact: mindaugas.gapsevicius@uni-weimar.de

Course Readings on Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HV75lDkZEHdtrAgx0-7SFfqAEqqGSGdL?usp=drive_link

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