Extinction as cultural heritage? Exhibiting human-nature entanglements with extinct and threatened species
Informations
- Funding country
Norway- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 1/1/2018
- End date
- 12/31/2022
- Budget
- 261,990 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPICULTURE - Cultural heritage and global change | Grant | - | - | 261,990 EUR |
Abstract
Extinction is a pressing problem in the world today. Increasing number of species are lost to extinction each year, a condition often labeled as the 'sixth mass extinction event'. Greater input is urgently needed from arts and humanities to work alongside, as well as to engage with, the scientific discoveries and ethical imperatives of contemporary wildlife conservation studies. Museums and art galleries are primary sites of public engagement with conservation issues like extinction. This project investigates how we can incorporate cultural stories of when animals and plants became extinct, as well as stories about when extinction was avoided, into museums and galleries. The project will explore the multiple emotions which are evoked in displays, including loss, guilt, belonging, care, mourning, and celebration, using interactive workshops, art-as-research practice, and narrative analysis across three different contexts in Norway, Poland, and UK. We will create three extinction as cultural heritage exhibit spaces, including one in Norway in 2021 together with the Aust-Agder museum and archive, as a testing ground for the research findings. Work on the Norwegian exhibition has progressed in 2020, with exhibition designs, an illustrated children's book, and an exhibition guidebook nearly complete. In 2019 the project team collected oral histories from Åmli locals on beaver hunting and relocation of beavers from the area. Data on modes of displaying extinction has been gathered through visits to other museums. Presentations on the role of extinction as cultural heritage have been made to stakeholder groups in the museum and cultural heritage sector in Scandinavia and internationally. Systematic work to publish the results in appropriate scholarly journals is underway. This research supports the conclusion that extinction narratives in museums can have cultural currency and impact.