The project participants are from Norway, the United Kingdom and Canada, with expertise in clothing, design, nature, feet, shoes, dance, cultural history and pedagogy.
Project leaders
Ingun Grimstad Klepp, SIFO, Norway
Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp’s doctoral research (1992-1996) examined the intersection of the history in the landscape and its value for friluftsliv. Much of the fieldwork took place in Finnskogen. Since 1990, Klepp has researched consumption at SIFO, mainly related to clothing. She has been involved in several projects concerning nature, land, friluftsliv and clothing for friluftsliv. From a young age, she has spent a lot of time at Finnskogen, having a cabin there, and knows the area and community well.
Kate Fletcher, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Professor Kate Fletcher, has since 2013 been exploring nature and clothing relationships, establishing this as a territory of enquiry. She has published three books at this interface in particular also in the form of interactive sonic artwork and in collaboration with actors and dancers. Since her PhD in 1999 exploring design for sustainability in textiles, Fletcher has published widely, her work defining and challenging the field of fashion, textiles and sustainability, working to open more plural perspectives in the field of clothing and sustainability research, including those of decoloniality, gender and social class. She has also developed experimental research methods that draw on direct, sensory experience and those concerned with uncovering situated, subjective understanding.
Lisbeth Løvbak Berg, SIFO, Norway
Lisbeth Løvbak Berg is a clothing researcher at SIFO and a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design at OsloMet. She has a background in fashion design and sustainability and a growing interest in indigenous perspectives, which she has explored in a recent publication: “Indigenous approaches to mediation of the climate and nature emergency: a conversation with Vanessa Andreotti”.
She also grew up in Kongsvinger, a town that sits right on the edge of Finnskogen.
Project participants
Anna Schytte Sigaard, SIFO, Norway
Dr. Anna Schytte Sigaard is a researcher at SIFO. She did her PhD on the project Wasted Textiles, where the goal was to reduce the use of plastics in the form of synthetic textiles. Through this project, she explored what synthetic textile waste in Norwegian households consists of, how it is created and how the textiles are disposed of. Anna has an interdisciplinary background with a master’s degree from the Centre for Development and the Environment, where she wrote her thesis about the production of genetically modified cotton in India.
Louise St. Pierre, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Canada
Professor Louise St. Pierre (PhD) is co-author of several books, including the internationally recognized ecological design curriculum (Okala 2003, 2013). She established Canada’s first Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Lab at Emily Carr University, which expands community to include more-than-humans (DESIS n.d.). She teaches design with more-than-humans in collaboration with Indigenous partners.
Sean Blenkinsop, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Dr Sean Blenkinsop is a philosophy of education professor in the faculty of education at Simon Fraser University. Current research explores teacher education and imagination, school and cultural change, eco-social justice, and nature as co-teacher and co-researcher. Most recent books are: Wild Pedagogies: Touchstones for Re-Negotiating Education and the Environment in the Anthropocene (2018); Ecoportraiture: The Art of Research when Nature Matters (2022); Education as Practice of Eco-social-cultural change (2023); and, Ecologizing Education: Nature-Centred Teaching for Cultural Change (2024) which gathers learnings from a series of eco-elementary schools focused on pedagogies of place, nature, and land that he has helped create and research.
Kris D’Août, University of Liverpool, UK
Dr Kristiaan D’Août is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, University of Liverpool (UK). He has a background in zoology and biomechanics, and currently focuses on the function of the human foot throughout ageing, with different footwear conditions, and in different artificial and natural settings. He has worked in field settings and with indigenous groups in Europe, Asia and Africa. In addition to his research role, Kris runs an MSc in Musculoskeletal Biomechanics and is Institute Sustainability Lead.
Gunn Engelsrud, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Professor Gunn Engelsrud, Department of Sport, Food and Natural Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, has a background in physiotherapy and pedagogy, and particular knowledge of the body, experience and movement, on which she has published extensively (e.g., Engelsrud & Rosberg, 2021; Engelsrud, 2023). She is the current leader of the research group Learning, Physical Education and Outdoor Life.
Marit Vestvik, Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage
Marit Vestvik from the Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren), works to preserve and manage Norway’s cultural heritage for future generations. She has in particular been involved in documenting and preserving Forest Finn cultural elements at Finnskogen.
Sigrun Selboe, The Norwegian Forest Finn Museum
Sigrun Selboe is a conservator at The Norwegian Forest Finn Museum, with whom we will collaborate closely. The museum and its staff have indispensable knowledge of Forest Finn culture, being the only institution dedicated to it. It is situated at Finnskogen and has intricate knowledge of Finnskogen and the actors in the Forest Finn cultural landscape.
Annette Bischof, University of South-Eastern Norway
Dr. Annette Bischof is an Associate Professor in friluftsliv at the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN).
Vårhild Bakke Bertzen, Norway
Vårhild Bakke Berntzen is educated in clothing andcostume design from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She is based at Finnskogen. Her work evolves around Forest Finn identity and cultural heritage, and in it, she uses protected Forest Finn craft techniques.
Vivobarefoot, UK
Vivobarefoot, and their founder Galahad Clark, have worked with Indigenous cobblers for more than a decade to create shoes which activate the body and are more connected to the ground. They have expertise in how shoes affect the gait, which also will affect what and how we see.
ULU of Norway
ULU is a tannery based in Vågå. ULU’s clothing and shoes, developed with traditional tanning techniques into clothing for friluftsliv based on local materials and ancient techniques, will be used on our trips into the woods of Finnskogen.
Rebekka Sæter, Norway
Rebekka Sæter is a movement-based artist and environmental educator from Oslo, Norway. She graduated with an MA in Transcultural European Outdoor Studies in 2014. She has studied Choreography at Dartington College of Arts and Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT) and Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Vitenparken Campus Ås, Norway
Vitenparken is one of Norway’s 13 science centers located in the heart of Campus Ås, inside the university campus of NMBU. It is a knowledge and experience centre where technology, food and research feed hungry stomachs and minds. Vitenparken is a non-profit foundation and the centre houses a café, events, exhibitions, brewery, greenhouse and kitchen garden.