Nordic Connections: Learning from the past to shape the future

This project researched two issues that threaten contemporary society — the fear of catastrophic climate change and the fear of nuclear disaster — through dialogue and mutual creative enquiry by young people (aged 13-20 years), partner organisations and individual members of the respective local communities.  The research tooj place simultaneously in Scotland and Norway. The participating communities taking part share Cold War histories and a deep concern for the future viability of our planet.

The urgency of the climate crisis demands imaginative and socially just solutions that don’t bring further harm to communities or the environment.  Hence the project adopted an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together the arts, environmental science, cultural heritage, social anthropology and immersive technology. In each country research teams employed forms of creative engagement to find imaginative ways to communicate the impacts of societal threats posed by climate change and nuclear disaster in order to find ways to diminish anxiety around the fears linked to these issues.  

The fears and anxieties, e.g., Eco-anxiety and solastalgia, that these particular global threats bring today are very real, effecting the well-being of many. This project builds on the researchers’ existing work in relation to climate crisis by considering the threat of nuclear war as compared to the threat of catastrophic climate change. This comparison fits well with the project aspirations to consider the effectiveness of art, and its public exhibition, as a vehicle to communicate climate crisis and nuclear threat. In Shetland the team has focussed on the Cold War period in previous research, and through this project expanded that work, comparing the fear of nuclear disaster and climate crisis. The project explored the Cold War environment, its physical presence (radomes, buildings) in the landscape and invisible legacies (contamination, memories).

Aims and Objectives
• Test intergenerational dialogue as a means to inform learning from the past to diminish fears linked to contemporary societal threat posed by climate change and nuclear threat,
• Employ forms of creative engagement to explore imaginative ways to communicate the impacts of the societal threats posed by catastrophic climate crisis and nuclear disaster;
• Facilitate collaboration, shared experience and knowledge exchange between communities in Scotland and Norway) in order to establish a foundation for a proposal for a larger project.

Partner organisations included: Baltasound Junior High School, Unst; Nord Universitet, Campus Nesna; Northern Isles Community Development, Shetland Islands Council; Onøy/Lurøy Skole; Centre for Island Creativity, UHI Shetland; Moray College UHI; Unst Heritage Centre.

Project Deliverables
• Resources were collected in relation to the project themes, including the link between the threats due to climate crisis and nuclear disaster.  Reading material was collected and displayed in schools; and researchers collected resources.
•  Collection of Audio Recordings - A set of digital audio recordings with five members of the Unst community aiming at preserving their recollections about the lengthy presence of the Royal Air Force in Unst and their perceptions of the threat of nuclear war.  Approximately three hours of material has been collected with plans in place to continue. Additionally audio clips were produced from the session delivered by the Norwegian researchers.
• Collection of Transcribed Interviews (from the above digital recordings) in Shetland Dialect and translated from Shetland Dialect into English. 
• A film (00:10:43) was produced by the pupils at Onøy/Lurøy School a shortened version of which is included in the Prototype Dome.
• Collection of drawings produced by each of the Unst and Norwegian school pupils (24 pupils) about their response to marine pollution during the session with Norwegian researchers, some of which included in the Prototype Dome.
• Collection of collages produced by 13 Norwegian pupils from plastic debris collected on their island, some of which included in the Prototype Dome.
• PowerPoint presentations – each pupil (24) created a presentation to introduce themselves to the pupils in their opposite school which the teachers shared.
• Talks and international knowledge exchange with project researchers and external specialists
      - Cold War and living with the threat of nuclear disaster, Roxane Permar and Susan
Timmins
       - The threat of climate crisis, Þorvarður Árnason
       - Arts education for sustainability by Asta Jonsdottir
       - Film screening and discussion, After Ice, film about Icelandic glaciers produced by
Þorvarður Árnason and Kyle Baxter
  - The NATO Radome at RAF Saxa Vord, Jim Kyle, in person talk at Baltasound Junior High
School
- Marine Pollution and Microplastics - Presentation and discussion about the climate
crisis with specific reference to the marine environment in relation to upcoming project
in Baltasound Junior High School, led by Mette Gårdvik, Wenche Sørmo and Karin Stoll
- Dialogue - 9 discussions by video conference between Unst and Norwegian pupils
facilitated by teachers and researchers
• Skills training in interview and recording techniques for students at Baltasound Junior High School with Liz Musser, professional Canadian broadcaster, and film maker
• Geodesic domes - two mini-domes and one large dome, 4 m x 4 m (the large one was not quite completed at the time of writing the Report)
• Documentary photographs
• 3 films produced by researcher Finlay MacDonald, 1) for secondary pupils to introduce the Prototype; 2) explanation of the technology and 3) a demonstration film showcasing the experience (https://thedesign.itch.io/geodesic-dome Password: Benbecula - scroll down, click on the top image in the right hand column).
• Immersive Technologies Prototype - an immersive geodesic dome experience developed using gaming technologies and incorporating both historical material (photographs), photographs taken by project participants and the material produced by the project (audio recordings, photographs, drawings, film) - https://thedesign.itch.io/geodesic-dome (Password: Benbecula)

This project explored two issues that threaten contemporary society — catastrophic climate change and nuclear disaster — through dialogue and mutual creative enquiry by young people, university researchers, partner organisations and individual members of the local island communities. The project linked two communities, the island of Unst in Shetland and two islands, Onøy and Lurøy in northern Norway. The islands share histories as well as a deep concern for the future viability of our planet. Through the course of the project we also learned about a range of other issues and qualities linked to daily life.

2077RP - Nordic Connections: learning from the past to shape the future
Funding Award: Government Departments › Award