This residency has had a long history, first with the Ars Bioarctica competition and later with the grants that were secured to bring the people together. We were very glad when we started converging towards Gilbbesjavri/Kilpisjärvi from the West, Northwest, South, Southwest and Southeast. Quite a navigational feat.
We were received by Leena Valkepää, who should us around the fantastic Kiekula research and living facility, complete with a full kitchen, Sauna and laboratory. Leena, herself a fantastic artist, now living on the shore of Keädgejavri lake with her husband and Sami reindeer herder Oula A. Valkepää. She has baked fresh bred for us and we immediately dove into a conversation about her own work and what we were up to. It could go on until late night if she did not have to return to her lake and cross it with a snowmobile.
Found this one on the internets, photo by Jussi Leinonen.
We also shared some information about the C-ASTRAL Bramor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle system that we will be flying in the next few days and gave her some material about it for Oula in preparation for our meeting.
The next day we visited the village, got some provisions (part of them we already brought from Norway) and prepared everything for the arrival of our team members. We also created a schedule, sort of a DTO (daily tasking order) so we could keep on track, since we knew that our 14 days will go by very quickly.
A sample of the schedule:
| 600 | SINUNI DREAMS | SINUNI DREAMS | SINUNI DREAMS | |
| 630 | ||||
| 700 | BREAKFAST CALL-MP | BREAKFAST CALL-KH | BREAKFAST CALL-MH | |
| 730 | BREAKFAST | BREAKFAST | BREAKFAST | |
| 800 | CLEANUP MH | CLEANUP KH | CLEANUP MP | |
| 830 | PERSONAL WORK | PERSONAL WORK | PERSONAL WORK | |
| 900 | ||||
| 930 | STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING | FIELDWORK | FIELDWORK | |
| 1000 | LEENA STATION TOUR AND LABORATORY SETUP | NODES CALIBRATION; VISUALISATION WORK | BRAMOR FLIGHT PLANNING AND MEETING | |
| 1030 | ||||
| 1100 | BRAMOR MISSION NO.1 | |||
| 1130 | FIELDWORK | |||
| 1200 | ||||
| 1230 | ||||
| 1300 | TEA/SNACK | TEA/SNACK | TEA/SNACK | |
| 1330 | ||||
| 1400 | LAB SETUP - HARDWAREWORK | NODES CALIBRATION; VISUALISATION | BRAMOR PROCESSING | |
| 1430 | BRAMOR MISSION NO.2 | |||
| 1500 | ||||
| 1530 | GROUP SESSION | GROUP SESSION | GROUP SESSION | |
| 1600 | DISCUSSION OF DAY 3 | |||
| 1630 | BRAMOR FLIGHT CREW ARRIVAL | NODES AND RANGE TESTS | ||
| 1700 | ||||
| 1730 | PERSONAL WORK | PERSONAL WORK | PERSONAL WORK | |
| 1800 | ||||
| 1830 | DINNER / WRAP | DINNER / WRAP | DINNER / WRAP | |
| 1900 | MB | MP | KH | |
| 1930 | ||||
| 2000 | MH/MP | MB/MH | MH/KH | |
| 2030 | SOCIAL / PERSONAL / MOVIE | SOCIAL / PERSONAL / MOVIE | SOCIAL / PERSONAL / MOVIE | |
| 2100 |