Dr Kaisu Koski

Rather than a matter of carbon reduction, City Reindeer considers the climate crisis a relationship problem. The film consists of a series of interspecies picnics that aim to begin restoring relationships with the more-than-human, starting with our relative, the Reindeer. It considers the picnic an interface between culture and nature and food as our closest connection to the land and other beings. As it appears, in search of contact with the Reindeer, one should also learn about elements such as wind. Both the preparation for and the actual encounter with the Reindeer are here considered necessary embodied and contemplative practices for human to tune into their animal senses as a connection to the animate Earth. 

City Reindeer is part of research on the Arctic climate crisis. This body of work consists of a short film, video article, journal article, and a photographic exhibit, created as a result of Dr Kaisu Koski’s  ArsBioArctica Art&Science residency at the Biological Station of the University of Helsinki, Kilpisjärvi, Finland. The project approaches the Arctic climate crisis from two interrelated perspectives: the human-reindeer relationship and methods for permafrost thaw mitigation with the help of the Reindeer. The latter explores the so-called Zimov hypothesis, which involves non-human animals in mitigating permafrost thaw. It introduces a speculative snow compacting experiment that utilizes the human body as a simulation for the reindeer body to measure the impact of snow stomping on the underlying ground temperature.  

Funder: Research England Expanding Excellence in England