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'''BIP 2: Landscape, Tourism, Memory, and Postcards (or Souvenirs) from Other Places''' | '''BIP 2: Landscape, Tourism, Memory, and Postcards (or Souvenirs) from Other Places''' | ||
===Background=== | ===Background=== | ||
Estonia’s oil shale zone is a landscape cut through by centuries of imperialism, extractivism, and displacement. From the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union, northeastern Estonia (Ida-Virumaa) became a monofunctional industrial region. Towns were built around mines, populated by imported labor, and stripped of ecological and cultural continuity. Today, semi-coke hills, smoking spoil tips, and chemically altered wetlands are markers of slow violence. These are not empty ruins; they are active archives where environmental damage and historical amnesia collide. Concepts like Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) reveal how generations forget previous ecological states, accepting degradation as normal. Memory fades, but the landscape still remembers. As part of our research, we began by exploring this region digitally through Google Maps. In some locations, purple icons appear—tiny cameras with flashes—signaling so-called “points of interest” or “scenic spots.” Clicking on them reveals images uploaded by visitors: people posing in front of spoil heaps or wetlands, taking pictures of themselves or their dogs in front of the wounded landscape. You can find a selection of these images for download here: | Estonia’s oil shale zone is a landscape cut through by centuries of imperialism, extractivism, and displacement. From the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union, northeastern Estonia (Ida-Virumaa) became a monofunctional industrial region. Towns were built around mines, populated by imported labor, and stripped of ecological and cultural continuity. Today, semi-coke hills, smoking spoil tips, and chemically altered wetlands are markers of slow violence. These are not empty ruins; they are active archives where environmental damage and historical amnesia collide. Concepts like Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) reveal how generations forget previous ecological states, accepting degradation as normal. Memory fades, but the landscape still remembers. As part of our research, we began by exploring this region digitally through Google Maps. In some locations, purple icons appear—tiny cameras with flashes—signaling so-called “points of interest” or “scenic spots.” Clicking on them reveals images uploaded by visitors: people posing in front of spoil heaps or wetlands, taking pictures of themselves or their dogs in front of the wounded landscape. You can find a selection of these images for download here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FNODajTB6GWR7_a26Bju7IiKxSEGJSLZ?usp=share_link | ||
===Focus, Question, Anticipated Outcomes=== | ===Focus, Question, Anticipated Outcomes=== | ||
This project focuses on ecological and cultural scars left by oil shale extraction. Rather than conduct interviews (which may be impractical), we propose to observe and translate these wounds into a visual language. Our main question is: How do landscapes remember what we forget? And how can these memories be interpreted without anthropocentric assumptions? How do these anthropogenic landscapes shape local identity? How do people stage themselves in front of industrial wounds? How can we engage with landscapes as wounded subjects, not passive scenery? And what does it mean to remember through stone, soil, and silence? | This project focuses on ecological and cultural scars left by oil shale extraction. Rather than conduct interviews (which may be impractical), we propose to observe and translate these wounds into a visual language. Our main question is: How do landscapes remember what we forget? And how can these memories be interpreted without anthropocentric assumptions? How do these anthropogenic landscapes shape local identity? How do people stage themselves in front of industrial wounds? How can we engage with landscapes as wounded subjects, not passive scenery? And what does it mean to remember through stone, soil, and silence? | ||
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*Anneli Printsmann, "The Land of Oil Shale" (2012) | *Anneli Printsmann, "The Land of Oil Shale" (2012) | ||
*Estonian folklore archives (Eksitaja and swamp-based pseudomyths) | *Estonian folklore archives (Eksitaja and swamp-based pseudomyths) | ||
'''BIP 4: Poetic homage to the Stone''' | '''BIP 4: Poetic homage to the Stone''' | ||