GRASS FELLOW, 2022
GRASS FELLOW
BAC and Uppsala University Graduate School in Sustainability Studies (GRASS) have jointly launched The GRASS Fellow programme – an artistic visiting fellow programme in an academic setting. Artists with a particular focus on sustainability issues are invited as visiting researchers to establish and develop new relationships and ways of working in the research environment. The aim of the GRASS Fellow programme is to enrich the campus environment with artistic processes and experiments, field trips and exhibitions to contribute to increased curiosity, consciousness and knowledge about sustainability issues.
CAMPUS GOTLAND
The GRASS Fellow programme is located at GRASS, Uppsala University Graduate School in Sustainability Studies at Campus Gotland. The programme offers artists the opportunity to come to Campus Gotland to work on their artistic projects. Campus Gotland is relatively small with 1300 students from a wide range of countries studying courses in the humanities, social sciences, engineering and medicine. The small scale makes activities visible, and the aim is for the artistic work to raise questions and engagement in the everyday lives of students and staff. Depending on the artists’ projects, the visiting fellow programme will also be developed in different locations, in collaboration with different stakeholders around Gotland.
GRASS FELLOW START 2021
The GRASS visiting fellow programme started in August 2021 when artists Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas visited the Graduate School at the start of the new academic year and conducted a two-day workshop with the PhD students. Under the name Urbonas Studio they work on interdisciplinary research, and artistic creation and have been working on the wetland as a biological concept and environment for a number of years. During 2019-2021 they have collaborated with BAC, Region Gotland and Public Art Agency Sweden in the development of the new Visborg district with the art project The Swamp Observatory.
Uppsala University's interdisciplinary graduate school on Campus Gotland with a focus on sustainable development, started in January 2021. The establishment of the graduate school is the largest and single most important investment the University is making in developing research activities at Campus Gotland. It conducts research on key societal challenges in areas such as changing energy systems, sustainable consumption, digital development and climate change from different scientific perspectives. The starting point for the graduate school is an interdisciplinary approach to important societal challenges in sustainable development. It involves 12 PhD students and 25 supervisors from eight departments ranging from earth sciences, cultural anthropology and ethnology, civil engineering and industrial technology, archaeology and ancient history to computer science and media, business administration, law and art history.