Bring the sky down to earth
I had the privilege of participating in an exciting interdisciplinary research project a few years ago. My contribution was to create art photographs from various forest environments with a high degree of authenticity.
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Exoter
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Clear cutting
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Old-growth forest
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Fertilization
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Selective logging
The forests in Sweden are largely managed. A common sight is the effects of clear-cutting, but other types of forestry are also used. In this project, I share my interpretations of different types of forests and management methods, from old-growth forests to fertilized spruce forests, to exotic tree species, as well as the various management methods of selective logging, clear-cutting, and untouched forests. The ambition was for the images to be "authentic" in that they convey the experience on-site - unfiltered.
The photos were then used as a basis for group discussions within the interdisciplinary research project "Bringing Heaven Down to Earth."
The images from this project have also been exhibited locally in Umeå and nationally at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm.
Below is a summary by Professor Erland Mårald from the research project's website.
Bringing Heaven Down to Earth: How the forest can be used to make the climate issue constructively approachable in local contexts
Research project
What exactly is the climate? Often, this concept is associated with a boundary- and generation-transcending phenomenon that seems to exist "up there in the sky." It's something abstract that is best understood by experts and handled by politicians at global summits.
In this project, we contribute to "bringing heaven down to earth" and making the climate issue relevant to people in their everyday lives, and climate challenges possible to handle in a constructive and inclusive way in local contexts.
Project description
The aim of this project is to investigate how to:
make the climate issue relevant to people in cities and in the countryside,
make it possible to develop pathways for development,
develop locally tailored measures to meet the climate threat.
To achieve the aim, the project is based on the forest as a so-called unifying thing and practice that can help link the climate as an abstract phenomenon with the local community, and the overall climate issue with local ambitions. Thereby, the climate challenge is linked to landscapes and with local contexts and practices, which in turn can bring about pathways for development and measures.
A collaborative process consisting of workshops, excursions, and dialogues with government officials and decision-makers has been the core of the project. The process included stakeholders representing both city and countryside as well as the northern and southern parts of Sweden. We have used visualized scenarios for the local community (with both historical and future perspectives) and, based on the participants' visions and views on the challenges, the researchers have developed common pathways for development. The next step has been to let the participants formulate sub-goals as examples of possible climate measures.
The project remains to process how this new knowledge and the methods for visualizing possible futures can be transferred to other similar situations, especially in municipalities. The project will contribute to strengthening people's opportunities to chart alternative pathways for adapting to and mitigating climate change in the local community.