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JPICULTURE-Cultural heritage and global change

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

Alternativ tittel: Utryddelse som kulturarv?

Tildelt: kr 2,1 mill.

Utryddelse er et presserende problem i verden i dag. Et økende antall arter går tapt til utryddelse hvert år, et fenomen som ofte kalles 'den sjette masseutryddelsen'. Det er nødvendig med større innsats fra humanistisk forskning som kan jobbe tett på naturvitenskapelige funn og etiske utfordringer knyttet til naturvern. Museer og kunstgallerier er viktige steder for offentlig engasjement med utryddelse. Dette prosjektet undersøker hvordan vi kan inkludere kulturhistorier om når dyr og planter ble utryddet, samt historier om når man klarte å unngå utryddelse, i museer og gallerier. Prosjektet utforsket de mange følelsene som presenteres i utstillinger, inklusive tap, skyld, tilhørighet, omsorg, sorg og feiring, ved hjelp av interaktive workshops, kunst-som-forskning-metoder, og narrative analyser i tre forskjellige sammenhenger i Norge, Polen og Storbritannia som en del av en JPICH-prosjekt. Vi skapte tre utstillinger som utforsker utryddelse som kulturarv, inklusive en i Norge i 2021 med Aust-Agder museum og arkiv, som en prøveplass for forskningsresultatene. Denne norske utstillingen ble lansert i 2021, med utstilling, en illustrert barnebok, og en historiebok. Utstillingen er mobil og har blitt vist på Elvarheim Museum (Åmli), Norsk skogmuseum (Elverum), Jamtli Museum (Östersund, Sweden), og Setesdalsmuseet (Rysstad) i 2021 og 2022. I tillegg åpnet vi en digital interaktiv nettutstilling på tre språk rettet mot barn basert på innholdet fra den fysiske utstillingen. I 2019 samlet prosjektmedarbeidere inn muntlige historier fra lokalbefolkningen i Åmli om beverjakt og relokalisering av bever fra området. Data om ulike måter å fremstille utryddelse på har blitt innsamlet gjennom besøk ved andre museer. Presentasjoner har blitt holdt om utstillinger som kulturarv for museums- og kulturarvsaktører i Skandinavia og internasjonalt. Vi har publisert resultatene i passende vitenskapelige tidsskrift, inklusiv et tema-nummer av Museum and Society-tidsskriftet om utstilling av utryddelse. Denne forskningen støtter prosjektets argument om at fortellinger om utryddelse i museer kan ha samfunnsrelevans og gjennomslagskraft.

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.

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JPICULTURE-Cultural heritage and global change

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