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JPICULTURE-Cultural heritage and global change

Extinction as cultural heritage? Exhibiting human-nature entanglements with extinct and threatened species

Alternative title: Utryddelse som kulturarv?

Awarded: NOK 2.1 mill.

Project Number:

296921

Application Type:

Project Period:

2018 - 2023

Location:

Extinction is a pressing problem in the world today. Increasing number of species are lost to extinction each year, a condition often labeled as the 'sixth mass extinction event'. Greater input is urgently needed from arts and humanities to work alongside, as well as to engage with, the scientific discoveries and ethical imperatives of contemporary wildlife conservation studies. Museums and art galleries are primary sites of public engagement with conservation issues like extinction. This project investigates how we can incorporate cultural stories of when animals and plants became extinct, as well as stories about when extinction was avoided, into museums and galleries. The project explored the multiple emotions which are evoked in displays, including loss, guilt, belonging, care, mourning, and celebration, using interactive workshops, art-as-research practice, and narrative analysis across three different contexts in Norway, Poland, and UK within the larger JPICH project. We created three extinction as cultural heritage exhibit spaces, including one in Norway in 2021 together with the Aust-Agder museum and archive, as a testing ground for the research findings. The Norwegian exhibition was launched in 2021, with exhibition designs, an illustrated children's book, and a history book. The exhibition was designed as a travelling exhibition and has been shown at Elvarheim Museum (Åmli), Norwegian Forestry Museum (Elverum), Jamtli Museum (Östersund, Sweden), and Setesdalsmuseet (Rysstad) from 2021 to present. In addition, we opened a digital interactive web-based exhibition in three languages aimed at children and based on the content in the physical exhibition. In 2019 the project team collected oral histories from Åmli locals on beaver hunting and relocation of beavers from the area. Data on modes of displaying extinction has been gathered through visits to other museums. Presentations on the role of extinction as cultural heritage have been made to stakeholder groups in the museum and cultural heritage sector in Scandinavia and internationally. We have published the results in appropriate scholarly journals, including a special issue of the journal Museum and Society on 'Exhibiting Extinction'. This research supports the conclusion that extinction narratives in museums can have cultural currency and impact.

The NFR part of the larger JPI project had the following actual outcomes and impacts based on the project results: 1) We collected and analysed historical data and displays in natural history museums of animals considered conservation success stories as well as extinction stories. The results were published in two scientific journal articles. The project team coordinated and edited a journal Special Issue dedicated to Exhibiting Extinction which is specifically targeted at museum sector employees. 2) We gathered oral histories from residents of Åmli who were involved or remember the beaver reintroduction projects. The transcripts from these interviews have been given to AAMA for archiving. These oral histories will be available to researchers in the future. 3) We worked collaboratively between the UiS research team and the AAMA museum staff to develop the narrative and content of the exhibit. This will have a long term positive effect of strengthening cooperation between the two entities. 4) We created a final exhibition to display the results of the work, including educational materials for school visits and a companion book. This exhibition has had thousands of visitors in 2021-22 at the four locations were it has been shown. School children were a specific target audience and these were engaged with a bespoke illustrated children's book and a puppet show. Over 2,000 copies of the children's book have been distributed. The children's book (https://ebooks.uis.no/index.php/USPS/catalog/book/155 in Norwegian and https://ebooks.uis.no/index.php/USPS/catalog/book/156 in Swedish) and the history book (https://ebooks.uis.no/index.php/USPS/catalog/book/157) are both available to read freely online. In addition, we created a web version of the physical exhibition to be hosted by AAMA (https://www.kubenarendal.no/beverutstilling) using the physical exhibition content. This creates a permanently accessible version of the exhibition. The three PIs of the larger project along with the Associated Partners reflected upon the co-production processes and potentials for university-heritage sector collaboration in dealing with an environmental issue like extinction. This work will continue after the end of the project.

This project will explore how species extinction, as well as recovery of species threatened by extinction, can be considered within a cultural heritage framework. We will investigate how human-nature entanglements in extinction cases can be placed into cultural contexts within museum and art gallery exhibitions. Greater input is urgently needed from arts and humanities to work alongside, as well as to critically engage with, the scientific discoveries and ethical imperatives of contemporary wildlife conservation studies. Because museums and art galleries are one of the primary sites of public engagement with conservation issues including extinction, critical reflection on how they can be used to cultivate heritage thinking about nonhuman species is timely in light of the increasing number of species lost to extinction each year as we live through the ‘sixth mass extinction event’. The project investigates display practices for cultural stories of both extinction and the recovery of species which had been on the brink of extinction with an interdisciplinary collaborative approach. The project will explore the multiple emotional framings active simultaneously in displays, including loss, guilt, belonging, care, mourning, and celebration, using interactive workshops, art-as-research practice, and narrative analysis. The project will develop best practices for how the cultural significance of extinction events, whether they happened or were averted, can be displayed in museums and galleries and implement those best practices in three exhibit spaces as a testing ground for the research.

Funding scheme:

JPICULTURE-Cultural heritage and global change