HMKV in the PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, 19 June - 10 October 2010

The cooperative project “Arctic Perspective – Third Culture 2008-2010” directs attention to the global cultural and ecological significance of the polar regions.

The project “Arctic Perspective” wants to take communications techology into the Arctic.
Photo: Marko Pelhjan, Matthew Biedermann

These are zones of contemporary geopolitical conflict and at the same time potential spaces for transnational and intercultural cooperation and collaboration. In view of the effects of climate change, the economic exploitation of untapped reservoirs of energy and natural resources in the polar regions is beginning to seem increasingly feasible.

Critical understanding of planetary system

By contrast, the cooperative project Arctic Perspective – Third Culture 2008-2010 emphasizes that the significance of the polar regions is not exclusively economic. Rather, the (inhabited) Arctic and the (uninhabited) Antarctic, as well as the radical cultural and ecological changes taking place at the North and South poles, are central to a critical understanding of the complex planetary system that involves a dynamic relationship between culture, economy, geopolitics, and ecology.

Enhancing public awareness

The partner organizations from five different countries – HMKV (Dortmund, Germany), The Arts Catalyst (London, Great Britain), Projekt Atol (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Lorna (Reykjavik, Iceland) und C-TASC (Montréal, Canada) – are working jointly on enhancing public awareness of the cultural and ecological significance of the Arctic. The project aims to bring closer to a wide audience the urgency of the problems emerging in the Arctic with particular clarity: the changing cultural landscape of the region, the potential for new intercultural dialogue, conflicting economic and territorial interests, ecological problems, climate change, and the effects of ecological changes on the life of the Inuit.

Media art and artistic research

With the means of (media) art and interdisciplinary artistic research (“third culture”) the project examines the complex global cultural and ecological interrelations in the Arctic, develops concepts for the construction of sustainable tactical communication systems and infrastructure and sustainable art/science research stations aimed at the furthering of interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue and cooperation. The jointly obtained results will be presented in the framework of European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 as well as the international media-art conference ISEA 2010 RUHR.

Funded by the European Commission, the City of Dortmund, the Federal Center for Civic Education, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.