Impact Attribution LAB: Roundtable Session Stavanger

In 2022, Stavanger municipality was selected to participate in two ambitious programs of the EU Commission. Firstly, Stavanger aims to become one of 112 climate-neutral cities in Europe by 2030. Next, it is also one of five lighthouse cities that will showcase the New European Bauhaus initiative. These commitments entail rapid transformations of Stavanger as we know it. Reaching far beyond technical solutions, both projects draw attention to the ethical and aesthetic challenges embedded in or resulting from the transformations to come. These transformations will change our culture and everyday life while also questioning the city’s identity and branding as the oil city of Norway.

What is the role of art and culture in these transformations? Cultural workers and producers are required to not only self-critically rethink their own ways of working, but also to consider if and how to contribute to green and just transitions.

The IA LAB’s round table session in Stavanger gathers researchers, strategic advisors, artists, and creatives to share their professional perspectives on the implementation of these measures. As we begin a green and just transition, what ethical and aesthetic imperatives are most relevant and urgent to address?

IA LAB is a pilot project for competence, confidence, and capacity building. The project will launch a resource site to support young artists who want to get involved and respond to the challenges of the green transition in all their diversity.

The project’s aim is to offer artists low-threshold access to information, skills, networks, and actors who are engaged in the implementation of the European Green Deal while covering various aspects and perspectives of the climate and biological diversity crisis. We propose to build a platform to share information and resources with our colleagues.

During the roundtable session on October 26th, we will discuss contributions from Associate Professors Anders Riel Müller, Jens Kaae Fisker, and Kristiane Marie Fjær Lindland from the research group, Social and Spatial Justice in Times of Transition at the University of Stavanger. We will have contributions from strategic advisors and innovation experts such as Helene Ødegaard, advisor to Smart City Stavanger at Stavanger Municipality, and Joe Lockwood, a strategic troublemaker and initiator developing collaborations for innovation ecosystems. We have invited Steffen Håndlykken, artist and chair of the board of UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund /Young Artists’ Society), along with other members to bring in perspectives from a union for visual artists. Florian Schneider, Professor at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Arts, NTNU and president of the Society for Artistic Research, and Ph.D. fellow Mari Sanden will bring in the perspectives of artistic research and practice, together with the participating artists in the IA LAB: Rodrigo Ghattas Pérez, Prerna Bishnoi, August Valentin, Daniela Björkenstam Stenbäck, Trude Bekk, Benjamin Hickethier and more.