Description du projet
Les communautés autochtones de l’Arctique en images
Les expéditions historiques dans l’Arctique sont souvent associées à l’héroïsme et à la bataille de l’homme contre la nature dans un environnement hostile et glacial. Mais pour les populations autochtones (dont l’aide a été cruciale dans le cadre de ces expéditions), cette région était, et reste, leur terre d’origine. Le projet ARCVIS, financé par l’UE, présentera l’Arctique occidental habité (Alaska, Canada, Groenland) par le biais de croquis de voyage, de peintures, de photographies et de gravures représentant ces communautés locales entre 1800 et 1900. Le matériel visuel sera exposé à l’aide d’une base de données géospatiales en ligne à accès libre qui liera les images à des lieux, afin que le contenu archivé soit accessible, contextualisé et pertinent pour les communautés de l’Arctique, ainsi que pour les chercheurs, les enseignants et le grand public. L’objectif est de mettre en valeur des aspects importants du riche passé culturel et historique de la région.
Objectif
The proposed research project “Arctic Visible: Picturing Indigenous Communities in the Nineteenth-Century Western Arctic” (ARCVIS) investigates the visual representation of indigenous people and their local Arctic environment in the nineteenth century, a period that saw intense exploration in the region. Hundreds of sketches, paintings, and prints of indigenous people and places in the Arctic were created by travellers from lower latitudes. Yet, the dominant and enduring imaginary of the Arctic is of a space devoid of people. The project will counteract the critical focus on ice and hostile environments in the sciences and humanities and present the peopled western Arctic (Greenland, Canada, Alaska) that was encountered by ‘explorers.’ Through the analysis of picture and text in archives and published nineteenth-century texts, it will strive to give ‘voice,’ to the indigenous people who were key to the success or failure of expeditions from the south. The research is highly topical, at a time when rapidly warming Arctic regions are threatened by intense exploitation for their resources. A key element of the innovative project is the collation and interpretation of the material through an open access online geospatial platform, which combines the visuality of exploration and travel with digital methods that seek to bring out the richly contextual information often bypassed in visual documentary records. The production of the online portal will make the material accessible, contextualised, and relevant for communities in the Arctic, educators, and interested members of the public, as well as academic researchers across disciplines. In contrast to enduring images of ice and vast empty landscapes, the project will show the Arctic as a peopled environment with a rich history and heritage. The indigenous contribution to Arctic exploration in the nineteenth century, often thought to be ‘invisible,’ will be made visible by the research.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF-EF-CAR - CAR – Career Restart panelCoordinateur
901 87 Umea
Suède