Landtimescaping with Rossedalen

Abstract

This article develops and explores ‘landtimescaping’ as an a/r/tographic practice that can help us as humans to expand and (re-)create our relationships to the Land. Through a/r/tographic fieldwork in Rossedalen, a valley situated in Southern Norway close to the city of Arendal, the authors experiment over time with different ways of being-with the Land. The aim is to contribute to art, research and education as worlding practices that facilitate diverse ways of sensing, relating and acting with other-than-human forms of being. By relating to Karen Barad’s theories of spacetimemattering, the verb ‘landtimescaping’ is coined to generate new knowledge through specific embodied practices, such as walks with locals and repeated visits to a certain spot. More specifically, three ‘landtimescapings’ are brought to life by intertwining different textual-visual approaches: Landtimescaping #1 –The neglected forest. Circles and cycles, Landtimescaping #2 – Deforestation. Life interrupted. Life to (be)come, and Landtimescaping #3 – The Quarry. Swallowing an event. In the final part of the article, the potentialities of landtimescaping for the practices of art, research, and education are discussed in order to open for a (re-)orientation of these separate forms of knowing towards entangled, fluid and open ways of existing. Photo: Helene Illeris, Anne-May Fossnes og Tormod Wallem Anunsen

Keywords

• land
• landscape
• time
• a/r/tography
• art practices
• fieldwork