Future North: The Changing Arctic Landscapes

241 Pages·2018·37.97 MB·English

by  Janike Kampevold Larsen

Future North
The changing Arctic is of broad political concern and is being studied across many fields. This book
investigates ongoing changes in the Arctic from a landscape perspective. It examines settlements and
territories of the Barents Sea Coast, Northern Norway, the Russian Kola Peninsula, Svalbard and
Greenland from an interdisciplinary, design-based and future-oriented perspective.
The Future North project has travelled Arctic regions since 2012, mapped landscapes and
settlements, documented stories and practices, and discussed possible futures with local actors.
Reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of the project, the authors in this book look at political and
economic strategies, urban development, land use strategies and local initiatives in specific locations
that are subject to different forces of change.
This book explores current material conditions in the Arctic as effects of industrial and political
agency and social initiatives. It provides a combined view on the built environment and urbanism,
as well as the cultural and material landscapes of the Arctic. The chapters move beyond single-
disciplinary perspectives on the Arctic, and engage with futures, cultural landscapes and communities
in ways that build on both architectural and ethnographic participatory methods.
Janike Kampevold Larsen is Associate Professor at the Institute of Urbanism and Landscape, The
Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway. With a background in literature and philosophy,
she specializes in landscape theory and particularly the configuration and conceptualization of
contemporary landscapes. She is project leader of the Future North project and the Landscape
Journeys project before that. She is one of the article editors for the Journal of Landscape Architecture
(JoLA).
Peter Hemmersam is Associate Professor at the Institute of Urbanism and Landscape, The Oslo
School of Architecture and Design, Norway. He is an architect and received his PhD from the
Aarhus School of Architecture in 2008. His main research deals with urban design and urban policy
and focusses on liveability, enabling technologies, sustainability, community engagement and the
public realm. He directs the Oslo Centre for Urban and Landscape Studies at AHO, and is a senior
researcher in the Future North project.
Landscape Architecture: History – Culture – Theory – Practice
Series Editors: Ellen Braae and Henriette Steiner
This series forms a central outlet for research exploring new approaches and vocabularies in relation
to this field. It offers both young and established researchers a much-needed platform for publishing
their work in a way that allows for both traditional and interdisciplinary methodologies to come into
play. Volumes focussing on the critical interpretation of Landscape Architecture from a historical,
theoretical or philosophical perspective are particularly encouraged. Questions of ethics and sustain-
ability are also emphasised.
For a full list of titles, please visit: www.routledge.com/Landscape-Architecture-History-Culture-
Theory-Practice/book-series/ASHSER-1440
Future North
The Changing Arctic Landscapes
Edited by Janike Kampevold Larsen and Peter Hemmersam
Future North
The Changing Arctic Landscapes
Edited by Janike Kampevold Larsen and
Peter Hemmersam
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Janike Kampevold Larsen and Peter Hemmersam; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Janike Kampevold Larsen and Peter Hemmersam to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-4724-8125-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-58371-6 (ebk)
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Contents
List of figures vii
List of maps x
Notes on contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiv
1 What is the future North? 3
JANIKE KAMPEVOLD LARSEN AND PETER HEMMERSAM
2 Reading the future North 16
JOHAN SCHIMANSKI
3 Spectacular speculation: Arctic futures in transition 26
AILEEN A. ESPÍRITU
4 Ruins and monuments of the Kola cities 48
PETER HEMMERSAM
5 Hyperlandscape: the Norwegian-Russian borderlands 65
MORGAN IP
6 Landscape in the new North 86
JANIKE KAMPEVOLD LARSEN
7 Visual and sensory methods of knowing place: the case of Vardø 106
HENRY MAINSAH
8 Future North, nurture forth: design fiction, anticipation and Arctic futures 119
ANDREW MORRISON
vi Contents
9 The perforated landscape 142
KJERSTIN UHRE
10 Branding ice: contemporary public art in the Arctic 165
WILLIAM L. FOX
11 Place as progressive optic: reflecting on conceptualisations of place
through a study of Greenlandic infrastructures 185
SUSAN JAYNE CARRUTH
12 Inhabiting change 204
ELIZABETH ELLSWORTH AND JAMIE KRUSE
Index 221
Figures
1.1 Teriberka on the Kola Peninsula was the designated land hub for the planned
Shtokman gas field, which was mothballed only days before our arrival 9
3.1 Then and now images of Jonas Gahr Støre making speeches about the High
North at the University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway 29
3.2 In the picture are Anne Husebekk, the University Rector, Prince Albert II
of Monaco and Salve Dahle, Director of Akvaplan-niva, the creator and main
organiser of Arctic Frontiers 34
3.3 BBC HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur (far left) in panel discussion with the Prime
Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg (third from the right) and also world-
renowned professor of economics, Jeffrey Sachs (second from the left) 35
3.4 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Børge Brende at the Kirkenes Conference
10 February 2016 36
3.5 “Dronning Sonja på plass i Kirkenes” [Queen Sonja in place in Kirkenes], NRK,
2 February 2011 37
3.6 Longyearbyen with the cable car junction in the distance, 24 August 2016 39
3.7 The Global Seed Vault 40
3.8 The Arctic Frontiers securitised 42
4.1 The new church in Nikel 51
4.2 Garage district in Murmansk 53
4.3 The central square in Monchegorsk 54
4.4 The ore processing plant in Zapolyarny 54
4.5 Street vegetation in Nikel 55
4.6 Mosaic from the abandoned mine in Revda 56
5.1 Bicycles abandoned at the Storskog border station 66
5.2 The human face of migration is profoundly visceral 68
5.3 Iron mine in Bjørnevatn outside of Kirkenes, Norway 70
5.4 Nickel smelter in Nikel, Russia 71
5.5 Steilneset monument to the Finnmark witch trials in Vardø, Norway 71
5.6 House built atop a Second World War bunker, Kirkenes 72
5.7 The Norwegian-Russian border and respective marking posts (Norway – yellow
and black, Russia – red and green) 73
5.8 Finnmark Police tweets on November 3rd–4th, 2015 75
5.9 Patchwork Barents, an online data mapping website, posted a tweet on
November 9th, 2015 showing the totals sourced from the police tweets 76
6.1 Our transect walk commenced at the brink of the Polar Sea 87
6.2 Globus II dominated views throughout the city 87
viii Figures
6.3 Sand and pebble material shapes into fantastic forms along the shorelines of the
Svalbard fjords 88
6.4 Vardø: The built environment in Vardø forms but a thin layer on top of the
strong geological foundation of the Varanger Peninsula 89
6.5 Train carts of ore of different texture and size testify to Murmansk’s connection
to the mining territories of the Kola Peninsula 93
6.6 Driving along the main road on the Kola Peninsula tailing mounds are an
integrated part of a landscape where the nature–culture distinction has collapsed
entirely 94
6.7 The mineral processing facility in Monschegorsk: one of the most polluted
places in Russia, and one that has contributed amounts of sulphuric acid,
palladium, and gold dust to the environment in a large radium around the city 94
6.8 One of the dilapidated fish processing buildings in Vardø, decorated by streetart
during KOMA-fest in 2012, curated by Norwegian streetartist Pøbel 97
6.9 Derelict mines litter the hillsides around Longyearbyen 100
6.10 Mining was discontinued in Pyramiden in 1992 102
7.1 A view from an upstairs window showing houses in a neighbourhood 111
7.2 A group of students go for a walk on one of the main streets of Vardø 113
7.3 Members of the researchers looking at a historical photo of Vardø during a
workshop session 115
9.1 The mineral prospectors have left the forest perforated, and a young girl listens
to the ground water rippling below 144
9.2 By the end of April, the reindeer graze on the ridges along the migration route
to their calving grounds in the coastal mountains 144
9.3 The Nussir copper mine prospect in the context of reindeer husbandry, coastal
fishery and mineral prospecting 147
9.4 A view from the coastal fishing boat in Repparfjorden towards the planned mine
tailings deposit site 150
9.5 Early in July 2013. Walking with the ribbon to make the reindeer move from the
temporary corral to the gárdi where the calves are marked. 153
9.6 The Mining Director marks the locations of the planned drill holes with vertical
road sticks 154
9.7 The iron tubes are hard to see in bad weather 156
10.1 The Svalbard Global Seed Vault 166
10.2 Steilneset Memorial in Vardø 170
10.3 “The Damned, The Possessed and The Beloved”, installation by Louise
Bourgeois, 2011 171
10.4 “Ocean Hope,” sculpture by Solveig Egeland, 2014 174
10.5 Christian Houge, Antenna Forest (2000), digital C-print, ed. 4/7, 100 X 300 cm 175
10.6 The Great White Sale 176
10.7 Nowhere Island, installation by Alex Hartley, 2012 177
11.1 An insulated, heated, metal-encased water pipe zigzagging across the facets of
the rocky terrain in Nuuk 192
11.2 Sisimiut’s harbour in April. The Royal Greenland factory is visible on the far left
of the picture 193
11.3 A dog shed in Sisimiut 194
11.4 A private house in Nuuk with a casually mounted solar panel on its façade 195
Figures ix
11.5 Sisimiut’s rubbish dump 197
12.1 Icelandic outwash 206
12.2 Öndverðarnes, Iceland 210
12.3 Outside the Eldheimar Museum, Heimaey Island, Iceland 212
12.4 Steilneset Memorial 214
12.5 Rock outcropping adjacent to Steilneset Memorial 215
12.6 Midnight sun in Tromsø 216