How can we exhibit climate – a phenomenon far removed from human perception? How do we narrate climatic change in a museum environment and initiate dialogue across its stakeholders and that locates it within the landscape of the UN’s Agenda 2030 Transforming our World? Various institutions have recently taken up this challenge. They range from established museums to new, emerging and experimental spaces. All attempt to promote debate and tell the stories we desperately need to connect scientific results to human lifeworlds.
This collaboratory will explore the dynamic and transgressive field of the ‘climate museum’. It will trace a unique and highly interdisciplinary space of encounter that connects the sciences and the humanities, academic and public spheres, research and action.
Theme
In the current environment disenchantment with the forms and channels used to communicate the challenges of climate change is growing. The scientific debate is often criticized for failing to provide a narrative able to relate to the lived experiences of a larger public. The mere distribution of facts is increasingly questioned in its ability to overcome complacency and to encourage change.
Museums in contrast provide communication rather than information, engaging in translation rather than simple transmission. They are also widely perceived as impartial actors with established patterns of transnational cooperation, an essential requisite for meeting the inherently global challenges climate change. However, museums must also be prepared to relinquish some of their more cherished notions, such as full curatorial authority and exclusive control over their own spaces. They will have to revisit their collections, exhibition designs and expert networks as well as develop their cross-societal appeal. Under these challenging terms, they could provide a readymade infrastructure for climate change communication and co-creation.
Core participants
- Dominik Collet (PI), is a climate historian at UiO. He led cross-disciplinary research groups spanning the sciences and the humanities, cooperated extensively with museums both academically and practically and co-organised several exhibitions.
- https://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/people/aca/history/tenured/dominikc/
- Brita Brenna, is a museologist at UiO. She has worked on natural history collections, from 18th century to present day. She is responsible for the group Heritage and sustainability in the Heritage Experience Initiative at UiO and has long standing experience in critical museology and museum collaboration.
- https://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/personer/vit/kulturhistorie-og-museologi/fast/britab/
- Torkjell Leira, is a geographer at the Natural History Museum Oslo. He has worked on biodiversity and climate change impacts in the Amazon. He is the project leader of the upcoming Klimahuset Oslo.
- Morien Rees, is a curator at Varanger Museum on Norway’s Arctic coast. He has worked widely as a practitioner in the museum sector since 1994 and is the chair of the ICOM working group on Museums and Sustainability.
- https://www.ne-mo.org/speaker/nemo/morien-rees.html
- Bergsveinn Thorsson, is museologist of the anthropocene. He has worked in Iceland’s museum environment for ten years before coming to Oslo for his PhD on museums, the environment and anthropocenic things. He has now joined Iceland's Bifröst University: https://www.bifrost.is/english/about-bifrost/staff/bergsveinn-thorsson-dr
Activities
Exhibition opens "The Shelter. Climate, migrations, heritage"
- 26.10.2023. The "shelter / schronienie" exhibition opened in Gdansk this week! The launch was accompanied by a symposium and a host of exciting events. The exhibition 'Shelter: wellbeing’ is the conclusion of the two-year international art and education is an attempt to create an open and creative space that links the world of culture with the world of nature, the world of humans with the world of non-human beings – plants and animals, the world of science with the world of art. This ambitious redesign of the ethnographic collection in respect to "Climate, Migration, Heritage" is the result of an ILN funded project by the National Museum in Gdańsk with OSEHs Curating Climate as a partner. The catalogue "Shelters. Essays for a time of crisis" will be available in the coming weeks. If you are in the Gdansk area, make sure you visit the exhibition in the beautiful Abbots granary. More information here.
Research group granted: The Nordic Little Ice Age: Lessons From Past Climate
- 6.9.2023. The Center for Advanced Studies in Oslo, has granted funding for a one-year research group in residence headed by PI Dominik Collet. It will explore how the lived experiences of the Little Ice Age in the North can help broaden current debates on climate adaptation and narration. In its final stage it will connect academics working on climate science and history to climate communicators, museum curators and activists. More information here.
Workshop with "The Shelter. Climate, migrations, heritage"
- 16.6.2022. Curating Climate is part of "The shelter" project, headed by the National Museum in Gdańsk and funded by an ILN grant. Together with Anna Kraika and her project team the collaboratory hosted a workshop on "climate. migration. heritage". It took us to Oslo's Klimahuset (Climate house), the new "Control" exhibition at the Oslo Historical Museum and Tøyen hovedgård. Many thanks to our colleagues Anne Birkeland and Gro Birgit Ween. You can find out more about the project and our partner museum here.
Meet Curating Climate at the Environmental Humanities festival
- 10.6.2022. The Curating Climate collaboratory is part of the Environmental Humanities Festival organised by OSEH. You can hear about our approach and meet us during the Lab talks on June 10th, 10-30-12h. Find the details here.
Research project granted: ClimateCultures
- 21.12.2020. The Norwegian research council has granted funding for the research project ClimateCultures - Socionatural entanglements in Little Ice Age Norway (1500-1800). The project has developed out of the Curating Climate collaboratory and is headed by PI Dominik Collet. It will run from 2021-2025, entails a dedicated climate museums perspective and will hosts a series of climate narration labs at Oslo Klimahuset. More information here.
Special issue of Nordic Museology (2020/3): Curating Climate
- 12.2020 The issue explores museums as contact zones of climate research, education and activism. It features an introduction by our team member Bergsveinn Thorsson as well as four fantastic papers reflecting the topics from our 2019 workshop.
- The whole issue is available with open access here.
Content:
- Bergsveinn Þórsson - Introduction
- Sarah W. Sutton - Museums as agents and settings for climate hope
- Jamie Larkin - Rethinking museum shops in the context of the climate crisis
- Magdalena Puchberger, Nina Szogs - Curating soya. Trying, testing and tasting (for) a sustainable museum
- Sameer Honwad et al. - Weaving strands of knowledge. Learning about environmental change in the Bhutan Himalayas
Klimahaus Bemerhaven - Symposium and Declaration
- 24.9.2020 Our partner Filip Wätjen has organised a fantastic symposium in the Klimahaus Bremerhaven in Germany. It features contributions from many members of our team. They have also released the Bremerhaven Declaration on the Role of Museums in Addressing the Climate Crisis, which you can find here: https://www.klimahaus-bremerhaven.de
Klimahuset Oslo opens!
- 16.6.2020 - Our partner, the Oslo Climate House, has opened its doors and is offering a remarkable exhibition and a wide array of events, both online and in situ. Do visit their website: https://www.nhm.uio.no/utstillinger/klimahuset/index.html
International workshop: Curating Climate - Museums as ‘contact zones’ of climate research, education and activism.
Date: 28/29th October 2019
- The workshop explored the emerging, dynamic and transgressive field of the ‘climate museum’, by bringing together people working in the museum and heritage sector, researchers, artists, activists and policy makers. The workshop was hosted by Oslo’s new Klimahuset under the umbrella of Oslo Green Capital 2019. It welcomed over 70 participants from 15 countries to the botanical garden at Tøyen Oslo and the Nobel Peace Center. The event was co-funded by OSEH, HEI, the Naturhistorisk Museum and UiO:Energy.
- You can find the booklet with schedule and abstract here.
The collaboratory is open for interested participants. To join our discussions, please contact: dominik.collet@iakh.uio.no