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Seminar 8: 

Nature and Art

with Hanne Åmli and Haakon Fossen. 
This seminar will be held in Norwegian. 

For Haakon Fossen, researcher in geosciences, it is a short leap to the world of the artist: 'I actively experience drawing, sketching, painting and creating figures and videos as essential for both curiosity-driven learning, research, analysis and communication. Furthermore, an artist's visual communication of geology is an enormous source of inspiration, joy and new ideas. We need bridges between science and art, and having contact with enthusiastic artists like Hanne is extremely rewarding and motivating, and adds a new dimension to a researcher's everyday life. In the lecture, I will try to show how art and the visual have an important place in my researcher's mind.'

This is followed by Hanne Ã…mli: The Sun Also Rises.

'The understanding of how the geosphere is connected to the human sphere can be explored through the senses. Art then becomes a powerful tool for understanding and empathy for the planet we live on. I work visually with exploration and communication of how the different earth systems affect each other. We as humans play a big role in these processes. To understand the connections, I study the small dots and long lines in nature. How do you draw lines from one fragment of information to the next fragment? Do different patterns and connections form? How do all these movements work together? There is much that needs to be investigated, seen and understood. How do different stones feel, or different leaves? Why do flowers have different colors, or the earth? Colors, shapes and texture say something about function. Movements on a micro and macro scale are inextricably linked. This is what I am working on in collaboration with researchers in several different fields. It started with Haakon Fossen, Henrik H Svensen, Gurli Meyer, Henriette Linge and geology, then I worked my way up to permafrost and climate research with Ketil Isaksen. Now I am collaborating with Vigdis Vandvik and have been in the field on two different projects here in Western Norway. SeedClim and RangeX which researches alpine ecosystems from a climate perspective.

My idea is that an interdisciplinary approach enables a multifaceted and better integrated understanding of how we humans are nature. We need to go out into nature and use ourselves and our senses to understand how to take care of ourselves, humanity and the planet we live on.

The Great Norwegian Encyclopedia states that empathy is

"...empathy, the ability to identify, understand and acknowledge the validity of others' emotional states and reactions".

I like to see the Earth as sensitive, alive and in flux. Where all the different spheres are closely connected and work with and against each other in an endless dance. There is an exchange of forces in the spaces and in the transitions where the spheres meet. A struggle or a collaboration arises for space, resources and energy.

I try to convey these processes through art and with different materials such as oil painting, ceramics, paper, biomaterials, installations, film and through dance. The exhibition "The Sun Also Rises" is aimed to be ready for viewing in the summer of 2027.