ISBN 978-3-7757-2681-8 Arctic 9 783775 726818 Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2 116 pages Perspective Edited by Michael Bravo 53 illustrations 24 in color & Nicola Triscott Cahier No. 2 ARCTIC “This is a story about the stories we Arctic GEOPOLITICS tell of human movement out of Africa and around the world. It’s Geopolitics & stories at three levels, or maybe it’s stories all the way down.” & Autonomy AUTONOMY Bravo & Triscott Nunavut.” of territory Arctic eastern north- Canada’s in know I those of most least at men, Inuit to apply to seems also devices technological using of pleasure The gadgets? love culture, and country of regardless men, that truism a it “Is Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy Plate 1 Simon Quassa from the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation relaxing with a ringed seal in the foreground after a day of filming seals for a documentary, 1988. Photo: Michael Bravo 3 Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2 4 Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy Plate 2 Pudlo Pudlat, Aeroplane, 1976. Reproduced with the permission of Dorset Fine Arts 5 Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2 Plate 3 Nathalie Grenzhaeuser, Hotellneset, 2007, from the series The Construction of the Quiet Earth. LightJet print, Diasec matte, 120 x 160 cm, edition 5 & 2 AP Plate 4 Nathalie Grenzhaeuser, Kapp Amsterdam, 2007, from the series The Construction of the Quiet Earth. LightJet print, Diasec matte, 120 x 160 cm, edition 5 & 2 AP 6 Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy Plate 5 Hunters survey the sea ice off the coast of Igloolik, 1988. Photo: Michael Bravo Plate 6 Nuclear icebreaker Yamal on its way to the North Pole carrying 100 tourists Photo: Wofratz/Wikimedia Commons 7 Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2 Plate 7 Green, modular, futuristic Arctic icebreaker concept from Setting the Course: Sustainable Arctic Shipping, Courtesy of DNV 2010. Plate 8 “The Lab,” or Eastern Arctic Research Center, Igloolik, constructed in 1975. The effort to involve the community in Arctic science included a competition to give the laboratory a local name. The winning entry recognized the building’s resemblance to a Snowy Owl, 1988. Photo: Michael Bravo 8 Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy Plate 9 Arctic Perspective exhibition, HMKV at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, June 18 – October 10, 2010. Curated by Inke Arns, Matthew Biederman, Marko Peljhan. Photo: Nejc Trošt Plate 10 Arctic Perspective exhibition, HMKV at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, June 18 – October 10, 2010. Curated by Inke Arns, Matthew Biederman, Marko Peljhan. Photo: Thomas Wucherpfennig, www.laborb.de 9 Arctic PerspectiveCahierNo.2 10 Plate 11 Map showing some sections of the network of Inuit Arctic trails covering Arctic Canada. Image: Claudio Aporta, 2008. Reproduced from Claudio Aporta, “The Trail as Home: Inuit and Their Pan-Arctic Network of Routes,” Human Ecology 37, no. 2 (2009), pp. 131–46. Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2 Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy Edited by Michael Bravo & Nicola Triscott Series editors Inke Arns Matthew Biederman Marko Peljhan Nicola Triscott With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 11 Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2 Credits The Arctic Perspective Initiative is a collaboration with individuals and organizations in the North, and we would particularly like to thank Paul Apak Rhoda Arnakallak Cheryl Ashton Navarana Beveridge Richard Carbonnier Shari Gearheard Taylor Inuaraq Celina and Sandy Irngaut Charlie Ittukssarjuat Harry Ikerapik Ittuksarjuat Thomas Anguti Johnson Becky Kilabuk Ralph Kownak Zacharias Kunuk John MacDonald, Cornelius Nutarak Sr. Philippa Ootoowak (Rebecca P Idlout Library) Herve Paniaq David “DJ” Panipak Paul Quassa George Qulaut Guillaume Ittuksarjuat Salladin Oana Spinu ARTCIRQ Igliniit project Igloolik Isuma Productions Inuit Heritage Trust Kinngait Studios Makivik Corporation Mittimatilik Hunters & Trappers Organization Nasivvik High School Nattinak Visitor Center Qikiqtani Inuit Association Taqramiut Productions The communities of Igloolik, Mittimatilik, Hall Beach, and Iqaluit 12 Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy Contents Introduction 15 Michael Bravo with Nicola Triscott Critical Art and Intervention in the 19 Technologies of the Arctic Nicola Triscott Building Autonomy through Experiments 37 in Technology and Skill Michael Bravo Traveling through Layers: Inuit Artists 57 Appropriate New Technologies Katarina Soukup Trails and Tales: Multiple Stories of 71 Human Movement and Modernity David Turnbull Post–Cold War Arctic Geopolitics: 89 Where Are the Peoples and the Environment? Lassi Heininen Contributors 104 13 Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2 14 Michael Bravo with Nicola Triscott • Introduction Introduction On the European Community agenda, but are employed to advise or lobby for Arctic geopolitics are “in,” while sealskins regulating it. are officially “out.” Hardly a day passes In late 2009 I was approached by without yet another news story about a the organizers of the Arctic Perspective race for resources in the Arctic. The states Initiative, a transnational art, science, and with waterfronts on the Arctic Ocean— culture collaboration, to edit a collection Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and of essays to situate their project in its the United States—have been largely geopolitical context. Collaborating peri- cooperating to settle their low-level odically with artists has previously been boundary issues and to meet United Na- important in the development of my own tions deadlines for submitting surveys of work. My debts to Inuit artists go back to their continental shelves. The prospect of 1988 when, having finished my training as exploiting new oil and natural gas energy a satellite communications engineer, I met reserves for G8 markets is redefining the Zacharias Kunuk in Igloolik, a small Inuit Arctic as a strategic environment. The community in Nunavut that is now the promise of a practical northern sea route principal site of this project. Kunuk, an in- over Russia brought about by diminishing ternationally acclaimed video-maker, has sea ice is turning the attention of power- throughout his artistic career resisted po- ful Asian shipping states northward. Our litical affiliation, a position grounded in his contributing specialist on geopolitics to anticolonial politics. My working collabo- this volume, Lassi Heininen, thinks that ration with Kunuk has, for my part, been the Arctic is experiencing a profound set a source of intellectual freedom rooted of political, economic, and environmental in dialogue about landscape, history, and changes, which other experts agree con- decolonization. The central premise in this stitute a “state change” in the Arctic itself.1 book, that competing spatial narratives In the face of global environmental about the Arctic can be embodied and concern, there is a grave danger that the performed by using technologies to create autonomy of ordinary people who actu- autonomy, owes a significant debt to my ally live in the Arctic is being sidelined by conversations with Kunuk about telecom- much more powerful strategic interests. munications and storytelling. Readers The inhabited Arctic is no less interna- will recognize that the spatial narratives tional in its politics and economics than privileged in this book are not necessarily the rest of the world. There is, however, those that sit easily alongside traditional an enormous gulf separating the experi- geopolitical writing. ence and understanding of those who While universities can encourage live in the Arctic and those who do not independent political critique, just as many researchers appear comfortable to be aligned with or sponsored by geopo- 1 Alun Anderson, After the Ice: Life, litical interests. Intellectual freedom asks Death, and Geopolitics in the New that we are reflexive and transparent in Arctic (New York, 2009); Oran Young, applying our critiques to our own politics. “Whither the Arctic? Conflict or Cooperation in the Circumpolar North, Recognizing the political conditions of Polar Record 45, no. 1 (2008), pp. 73–82 one’s own freedoms is the precondition 15 Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy for building political autonomy capable of of trails around Igloolik span the width of resisting exploitation and repression. With the Canadian Arctic, and perhaps further that spirit of reflection in mind, this book to Alaska and Greenland.2 is a work-in-progress reflecting a set of The “media-centric” approach of the ongoing conversations between a small API lead artists Marko Peljhan and Mat- number of artists, indigenous peoples, thew Biederman is a collaborative, artistic, scholars, and journalists. and technological response to Igloolik’s Collaboration with the arts has a own considerable arts and media his- critical role to play in Arctic geopolitics. tory. Peljhan has come to Igloolik with a Thinking geographically first and foremost history of having explored how autonomy is an act of spatial and visual imagination. can be performed through technological The public imagination of the Arctic is experiments that have traveled to different guided and framed by map projections, kinds of extreme environments, initially satellite imagery, photographs, and other setting out from his own country, Slove- forms of visual representation. Visual nia, around the time of its independence, languages contain arguments, conceal which