On Saturday, this happy gang headed out towards Reindalen and the Tarandus field-based residency. The group consists of residents Alexandra Meyer, social anthropologist; Lilli Wickström, architect; and Oriane Laromiguière, journalist. They are led by Samantha Dwinnel, Tarandus Residency Project Lead.
Following an unusually wet and warm October, the group was excited about the prospect of being able to ski rather than hike the long way to the field cabin, located approximately 40 km south of Longyearbyen.
During their Tarandus residency, the trio will develop Tales from the Landscape, using their time in the High Arctic tundra as a space for close observation, attentive listening and exchange. Bringing together methods from anthropology, architecture, journalism and artistic practice, they will observe and document the landscape and its human and non-human inhabitants, exploring how different ways of researching and understanding a place can inform one another.
At the heart of the project is an interest in care: how we pay attention to our surroundings, how we respond to environmental change, and what responsibilities emerge from living in a fragile and rapidly changing world. Through listening, conversation, observation, words and sound, the trio will explore how scientific and artistic research can become forms of care, translating what they encounter into stories that can be shared with others.
We wish Alexandra, Lilli, Oriane and Samantha safe travels and a wonderful stay in Reindalen. We look forward to following what emerges from their time together at Tarandus.
About the Tarandus Field-Based Residency
The Tarandus Field-Based Residency is Artica Svalbard's collaborative art–science programme, developed in partnership with the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). Based at the Tarandus field station, the residency places artists alongside scientists conducting long-term research on Svalbard reindeer, creating opportunities for artistic and scientific inquiry to unfold side by side in the High Arctic tundra. Read more here.
