Arctic Waters – Day 2

Discussions and laboratory work

Team:
Anu, Brian, Jenni, Julie, Luis

plus from Second Order team:
Jurate

Activities:

• Discussion about the previous days’ field trip and what areas of the Arctic Waters Arctic Water mind map to focus on.
• Individual lab work exploring samples and techniques.
• Swimming in lake Kilpisjarvi.
• Walking in the area.
• Meeting to show work collected and discussion about Arctic Waters locally (precipitaton, evaporation, albedo).
• Field_Notes group meeting (hosted by Tapio)
• Some saunaing.
• Some drinking.

Spottings:

• Lab equipment
• The lake water was tested
• Water samples from the lake were viewed under the microscopes. They are rich with diatoms, copepods, and some nematoads.
• Benthic algae

Recordings:

• Video via microscope
• Stills
• Mental snapshots

Thinkings:

As a multidiscipline group we discussed where we are heading. And how we are getting there. We looked at the differences of approach to the process of experimentation and goals, the exchange of approaches between artist and scientist, the confidence in an open-ended journey.

For the group members that hadn’t seen them before the world seen through the microscope was beautiful and mesmerising. The samples were very lively, containing a lot of movement and an incredible array of different shapes and colours. The diatoms mainly transparent with various colours looked as if they had been sculpted from slices of gemstone. The push and pull of the miniscule critters on each other and their environment was evident, showing how the surface tensions between them are often stronger than they are – a direct very visual example of their symbiotic relationships.

“We are in the world that we don’t know” – Anu in ref to the arctic waters

Audio levels of water courses, in a quiet environment the water roars and dominates the landscape, in an urban environment the sound is drowned.