JRC makers-in-residence programme : blueprints for change : artistic explorations of the Arctic

This report describes how my artistic project is related to several issues in the region of the Arctic Circle. The project, which began in 2023 during a textile art residency in Norway, consists of multiple works that will eventually become a large series of artworks that aim to contextualise and relate a number of issues in the Arctic. During my stay at the JRC Makerspace, in Ispra (Italy), I focused my work on exploring early European maps of the North Pole how they imaginatively depicted the Arctic region, and how these fantasies compare with today's realities. After talking with JRC scientists, I became also more aware of specific problems of the Arctic population in relation to global warming, for example in the case of the Sami population and the problem of reindeer not getting enough food, or the weather phenomenon of black carbon, where the Arctic ice darkens due to air pollution and then no longer reflects as much UV-light, leading to an acceleration of global warming.