– an exploration and mapping of the potential for agriculture production in the Northern Varanger region

We are not only in a climate crisis; we are in a nature and biodiversity crisis. The drama of biodiversity and carbon storage plays out in our areas. Area is under pressure throughout the world, and loss of area is one of the fiver major reasons for loss of biodiversity. Area in the Arctic is becoming more accessible as temperatures rises.

In order for small communities to thrive in a changing Arctic climate, new ways of living and producing need to be explored. Anticipating future possibilities, the municipality of Vardø wishes to set aside areas for agricultural production in their new zoning plan, and need to assess historic agricultural areas as well as the potential to establish new ones. This course maps the potential for agriculture in Vardø municipality, a near Arctic region in northern Norway. This involves mapping existing land use practices such as reindeer grazing routes and berry picking, threats such as overgrowth and sea-level rise, and competing interests such as windmill development. It also involves a profound consideration of the area’s past colonial history by the forced agriculture and settlement initiative by the Norwegian state in the 1700 hundreds. Leaning on the cross-institute research project Common Resources-Strategies for a circular, balanced and shared management of areas under pressure, the course is founded in an idea of circular resource network. It builds knowledge on local landscape practices and local biodiversity and explores the friction zones between site specific practices, heritage strategies and future use of area. The course discusses ways of ‘making’ and ‘doing’ landscape and how they may be ‘unmade’ or ‘undone’ both by climate change, preservation practices and zoning decisions.

The course is a research elective. It is based on landscape analysis and in-field registration of biology, geology and topographical outlay, and is framed by theories on planning, heritage and landscape practices at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, discourses on care ethics, environmental humanities and design.

The analytical and practical components of the work will be exemplary for future challenges in the Northern hemisphere. The course will be looking at the Varanger territory as a testing ground for soil construction, for collaboration with municipal management, and novel mapping techniques. 

Phase 1: Collection and representation We collect information of the area by studying earlier landscape analyses, archive material and maps. Preparation of Illustrator maps.

Phase 2: Documentation In-field registrations by walks and visits with local reindeer herder and sheep farmers. We document by digital registration of data, photography, drawing and writing. Registration takes place during the field trip in September.

Phase 3: Projection We discuss our findings and their relevance for future practices. Geodata and environmental data will be used.

Output:

A series of descriptive texts, imagery, narrative sections and GIS maps that show current situation in the areas in question and projections of future uses, negotiated in relation to sea levels rise, overgrowth, grazing area and energy production.

Exhibition: Common Resources

Results will be exhibited in a large exhibition in Vardø, featuring the total amount of work by Tine Hegli’s In Balance – Arctic Cycle studio courses in Vardø over the last two years and the Resource Atlas course series in the same period. This exhibition will also be brought to AHO.

Resource Atlas – book format (joint project)

Result will be published: joint course output will be a high standard publication of local resources for future development.

This atlas will be a document that stresses the importance of sustainable land use and careful resource practices.