Arctic InfraScapes: Mobilizing Arts, Science, Local and Indigenous Knowledge to Understand Infrastructure Imaginaries

Abstract

The Arctic region is a complex and dynamic environment, inhabited by Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and non-human species. Understanding and engaging with the Arctic requires interdisciplinary approaches that integrate sciences, arts, local knowledge, and Indigenous perspectives. The exhibition Arctic InfraScapes (2023) and other multimedia projects initiated by the international platform ArtSLInK (Arts, Science, Local, and Indigenous Knowledge) used an audio-visual language and recent digital realms to express concepts and ideas about the future of the Arctic hard and soft infrastructures affected by the climate change. The article presents the Indigenous scholar and curator’s perspective on the form and process of creating multimodal narrative(s) based on the ArtSLInK methodological approach. It seeks to showcase how this approach provides grounds for analyzing the possibilities and challenges associated with converging diverse knowledge systems. (OZ and VK)