From\n company towns to fishing towns, international cities to closed cities, \nmilitary towns to S\u00e1mi settlements, confined border towns and merging \ntowns, historical cities and commissioned cities, from infrastructure \nnodes to deserted towns, Soviet cities to reconstructed cities, the \nBarents Region\u2019s urban portfolio is as complex and filled with contrasts\n as it is geographically dispersed. Add arctic climate, tough winters, \nand seasonal darkness, and you have a region of extreme urbanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Introduction to Northern Experiments (www.northernexperiments.net)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n paragraph above is one of many examples where cultural production is \nharnessed to make an abstract or even emergent concept accessible to the\n senses and mind. But in this context it is interesting primarily \nbecause the combination of verbal images sounds odd. This construction \nis a rhetorical figure in itself, a catachresis; a mix of conventional \nmetaphors. Yet it could be claimed that it is truer than conventional \nmetaphors. Foregrounding the modern and urban character of the Arctic \nregion, the section focuses on the resilience and nonconformity of \nlandscaping. It is a stark contrast to stereotypical conceptions of \nmodernity as well as of wilderness or rurality: the mental image of high\n rises and highways versus sparsely populated areas, cultural heritage \nversus consumer culture, be it of settlers or indigenous people. The \nplace conjured up for these \u201cnorthern experiments\u201d is no idyll \u2013 this \nnew region of the world is conflicted and transforming, both literally \nand figuratively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-635","project","type-project","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n