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65 301 The Global North and The High North
Admission to Master of Landscape Architecture program or master's level Architecture.
Seen from the world both Oslo and Tromsø is part of the Global North, seen from Oslo, Tromsø is part of the High North, moreover it is the Capital of the Arctic. The Global North and The High North takes as a point of departure contested landscapes in North Scandinavia to critically discuss contemporary landscape theory, cartography, and the understanding of place.
The objective of the course is twofold; first, it aims at giving the students a positive reading- and writing experience and an opportunity to develop their ideas textually. Second, it aims to provide an advanced introduction for students to Scandinavia's northernmost landscapes mediated by authors and lecturers with diverse northern and indigenous perspectives. Themes may range from the student’s personal encounters with North Norway, via reindeer pastoralism and competing outfield industries, to the geopolitical, ecologic, urban, and climatic significance of Artic territories.
The course will present and discuss theory that provides models to understand and interpret different perspectives on past, present and prospected futures of subarctic sea- and landscapes. Designers, architects, and landscape architects often incorporate expert knowledge from other disciplinary fields in their projects while moving seamlessly between observing, thinking, drawing, modeling, reading and writing. Focusing on reading, citing, and writing, this course critically discusses methods of place- and landscape analysis for landscape architects.
The course gives situated knowledge and general overview of recent discourses of Arctic landscapes, indigenous issues, northern social, climatic, and political contexts. The students will acquire knowledge of the politics of visual representation in the use of maps, photos, and diagrams. After the course the students will have a basic understanding of various literary genres in academic writing, and an advanced theoretic base for ‘reading’ and understanding the interconnectedness between place and landscapes in general –and in particular– northern landscapes.
Students will learn how to search for and find relevant literature, and train the ability to develop personal strategies to keep updated and informed as discourses and political, economic, climatic, and cultural conditions change. They will be able to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative research information, to critically analyze an academic text, and develop skills in experimentally and exploratory combining knowledge from different sources in their own academic and creative writing.
The students will develop competence in academic writing and peer reviewing, in recognizing and formulating research questions, and to communicate their ideas effectively through texts.
The first part of the course is organized as reading and writing group with lectures and/or conversations about the literature once a week. A process with individual assignments will be followed up with group discussions and individual supervision. The students are expected to participate in the discussions, and give short presentations of their texts at different stages of the writing process. At mid-term there are a full writing-week followed by an open seminar where the students present both their theoretical and graphically illustrated papers and a peer-review of one of their colleagues’ paper. By the end of the course, the students have time to rework their papers for print and final evaluation.
Full curriculum of 15-20 texts will be made available at semester start. It will be centered on the seven texts listed here. I recommend to prepare for the course by getting orientated about Arctic issues, and to pay attention to how themes such as indigenous peoples rights to land- and seascapes, biodiversity, consequences of increased human activity, tourism, migration, resource extraction, new infrastructures, and consequences of climate change (changing weather-patterns with related geo-hazards and changing ecologies) are discussed in public media and open source publications. The Arctic Review on Law and Politics https://arcticreview.no/index.php/arctic/index is a good place to start.
Cattoor, Bieke and Perkins, Chris. “Re-cartographies of Landscape: New Narratives in Architectural Atlases.” The Cartographic Journal Vol. 51 No. 2, The British Cartographic Society 2014, 166–178.
Corner, James. “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention.” In Mappings, ed. Denis Cosgrove, Reaktion, London, 1999, 213-52.
Girot, Christophe. “Four Trace Concepts in Landscape Architecture.” In Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture, ed. James Corner, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999, 59-66.
Jones, Michael. “Seasonal landscapes in Northern Europe.” In Landscape, Law and Customary Rights, ed. Michael Jones and Audhild Schanche, Diedut 3, Sámi Instituhtta, Kautokeino 2004, 11-38.
Meløe, Jacob. “The Two Landscapes of Northern Norway.” In Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. Volume 31, issue 3. Bergen 1988, 387-401.
Tsing, Anna. More-than-Human Sociality A Call for Critical Description.” In Anthropology and Nature, ed. Kirsten Hastrup, Routledge, New York, 2013, 27-42.
Sara, Mikkel Nils Land Usage and Siida Autonomy, Arctic Review on Law and Politics, vol. 3, 2/2011 p. 138–158.
| Mandatory coursework | Courseworks required | Presence required | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annet - spesifiser i kommentarfeltet | Required | It is mandatory to read and analyze the course literature, to hand in all designated deliverables, and do designated peer review. Lectures, tutorials, and reading/writing group activities have mandatory attendance at 80%. |
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe) | - | Pass / fail | A sensor will evaluate the final papers. The teacher will evaluate the student’s personal progress and oral participation in discussions throughout the semester. English reading and academic writing skills, as well as knowledge of Arctic conditions may be unequally distributed in the student group when we start the semester, willingness to help each other with overcoming obstacles will be taken into consideration in the evaluation. |
| Workload activity | Comment |
|---|---|
| Lectures | • Thematic lectures and conversations. • Reading and analyzing articles, essays, papers, and project description to recognize concerns, research questions, genres and structure. • Making drawings and maps as a way of conceiving original research questions, explore concerns, and add layers of reflection. • Step-by-step writing assignments focused on the craft of asking questions, developing, structuring, editing, and transforming academic texts between formats. • Write, present, and re-write an academic paper. • Orally sharing, presenting, and give feedback to ideas in conversation within the group, with guest lecturers, in personal tutoring, and through peer review. |