Photo North: More-than-Planet Environmental Literacy Seminar and Photo Exhibition Opening will take place on 24-25 September, 2024 at Valve Cultural Centre, Oulu.
Globally, 75% of the world’s land area is under direct human influence. Our actions and the way we understand and conceptualise the planet have a concrete impact on our environment. The technologies used to study and describe the Earth’s environment, as well as the concepts, value systems and cultures that define the human perspective, are often complex, difficult to understand and disconnected from people’s everyday lives.
How can artists and critical researchers contribute to the challenges of space and ecological crisis? How can environmental literacy open up new perspectives, connections and agency for individuals and communities in a world struggling with climate change?
These themes will be explored in the More-than-Planet seminar starting on Tuesday 24th of September. The event will include presentations on interspecies relations, the problematics of observation and imaging technologies, satellite remote sensing, ecological transition and the role of art in social discourse. In addition, we will hear presentations of the workshops and residencies carried out during the More-than-Planet project. Registration for the seminar opens soon.
On the evening of the first day of the seminar at 19:00, the opening of the More-than-Planet exhibition will be celebrated in the Valve and Photo North galleries. The exhibition is open until 19th of January 2025. The exhibition, which focuses on environmental literacy, offers perspectives and views from the space, the forests and beneath the earth’s surface. The artists featured in the exhibition are Baran Caginli, Felicia Honkasalo, Mari Keski-Korsu, Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte, Minna Långström and Cesar and Lois collective.
Combining satellite data, artistic research, citizen science and photography, the More-than-Planet project develops environmental literacy through artistic work and collaborations linking space, climate and environmental research from 2022 to 2025. Project partners include the Waag Society in the Netherlands, the Ars Electronica Centre in Austria, Leonardo/Olats and Makery in France and Project Atol in Slovenia. Photo North’s local partners include the University of Oulu’s Oulanka Research Station, the Pyhäsalmi Mine’s Callio Lab research and testing organisation, and the University of Oulu’s Kerttu Saalasti Institute.
The international research project More-than-Planet develops environmental literacy through space exploration, artistic work and collaboration between 2022 and 2025. This project receives funding from the European Union’s Creative Europe programme under grant agreement No 101056238 and national match funding from the City of Oulu and the Finnish National Agency for Education.