In this session of the Anthropogenic Soils (SOILS) reading group, Henrik H. Svensen will explore how local landscapes can be read through their soils and rocks, and how such landscapes bear traces of both deep geological time and recent anthropogenic transformations.
The presentation will focus on an area close to where Svensen lives, where a small hill was recently blasted to make space for an industrial area. Following this destruction over several years, he documented the geological aspects of the rocks and soil cover that were removed. As part of this process, he also produced photographs, woodcuts, and silkscreen prints, some of which will be presented during the talk.
The session will also engage with questions of how geological knowledge can contribute to broader environmental humanities conversations about landscape, transformation, and human disruption. A text by Svensen will be circulated in advance of the seminar.
Meeting ID: 689 7771 4666; Passcode: 657475
After the session, there will be an excursion on campus.
Bio
Henrik H. Svensen is Professor of Geology at the Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, and leader of the VICCO Centre for Carbon Storage Research. His main research interests concern geological processes and their links to the cycling of elements, as well as interactions between the lithosphere and the atmosphere. He has also participated in the cross-disciplinary Gardening the Globe project led by Kyrre Kverndokk at the University of Bergen. Svensen has written several popular science books, most recently Et land av stein, about how to understand the different rock types found in Norway.