Nordland Akademi for Kunst og Vitenskap, Melbu, Arctic Circle, Norway
Funding: Norwegian Arts Council, British Council, Arts Council England
Funding: Norwegian Arts Council, British Council, Arts Council England
Neptun Art/Science Lab was a residency-based research initiative situated at the Norwegian Fishing Industry Museum in Melbu. Conceived as a meeting point between art and science, the project explored conceptual, environmental, and cultural questions relating to the sea, technology, migration, and life within the Arctic Circle.
In 2016, I was invited by Nordland Akademi for Kunst og Vitenskap to form and lead a collective of artists and creative technologists for a residency in the Arctic. The group included Joe Fairweather-Hole, Dave Meckin, Clara Duran, Alice Helps, Rhiannon Evans, and myself.
Working within the vast industrial spaces of the museum, including oil tanks and warehouse structures, we developed a collaborative creative research practice focused on the more-than-human landscape of the Lofoten region. Building on Leviathan’s Electrolarynx, we developed the idea that the museum and the island itself could be imagined as a single, slumbering Leviathan.
This residency focused on thinking, making, dialogue, and exchange with local communities, forming long-term relationships that shaped the direction of the Leviathan project and its future iterations.
"The effects on the people and the organisations in Melbu and the surrounding region was inspirational in the sense that this project allowed for time and dialogue – a direct exchange between the artists and people who live here fostering a long lasting connection.”
Funding evaluation report for the British Council 2016
