This project is a collaborative initiative between Nordland Akademi for Kunst og Vitenskap and Museum Nord, supported by Arts Council Norway and Nordland County Council.
Neptun Art/Science Lab is a physical and theoretical hub and project space, conceived to be at the intersection between Art and Science located at the Norwegian Fishing Industry Museum, North Norway.
In 2016 I was asked to create a collective of artists and creative technologists for a residency in the Norwegian Artic by the Norland Academy of Art and Science to ‘consider conceptual thinking around issues that affects the sea, technology related to the sea, migration, history and the futures of the arctic circle.
Using my professional networks I brought artists who focused on community, scenography and creative research in their practices. Our collective was formed of Joe Fairweather-Hole, Dave Meckin, Keir Williams, Clara Duran, Alice Helps and Rhiannon Evans.
We where based within the {MUSUEM} and the ageing industrial grandeur of it’s giant oil tanks and warehouse spaces. The {Museum Melbu, Lofoton Islands} allowed our collective time to develop a collaborative, creative research practice to investigate, the ‘more-than-human’ landscape of {Lofoton} and it’s residents.
The effects on the people and the organisations in Melbu and the surrounding region was inspirational in the sense that this project allowed for time and dialogue – a direct exchange between the artists and people who live here fostering a long lasting connection.”
Funding evaluation report for the British Council 2016.
Building on my collaborative work with scenographer Joe Fairweather-Hole at the Oxford Story Museum ({Leviathan’s Electrolarynx} we created the conceit that the entire Fishing Museum and the island it sits on was a giant, slumbering Leviathan. We used the Leviathan narrative as a foundation for our exploration of the ‘unseen landscapes’ in our collective works. We created a series of initial ‘thinking’ works based on our participatory research and practice with local communities for a series of performances in the cathedral dominions of the old fish oil storage tank ‘Neptun’s Hall’’.
